Source Description:(title page) History of the University of North
Carolina. Volume I: From its Beginning to the Death of President Swain,
1789-1868
Kemp P. Battle
x, 1-880 p., ill.
Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, Raleigh, N.
C.
1907

Call number C378 UE1 v.1 c.9 (North Carolina Collection,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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INTRODUCTION.

This history was written amid many interruptions. Sometimes long intervals elapsed before the pen could be resumed. I certainly aimed at accuracy. If there is any failure in this regard it is accidental. Similar disturbances during the important process of proof-reading caused errors, but they do not obscure the meaning. The book is larger than I expected, and hence some of the half-tones prepared for this volume will be reserved for its successor. Except where absolutely necessary for true portraiture, I have carefully refrained from wounding the feelings of any one.

It may be said that I have dwelt too much on the pranks and frolics of students. My reason for detailing them is that they show, first, the social habits of the people generally, because the University is a microcosm of the State, and, second, they were largely caused by the defective system of discipline.

I have endeavored to follow the careers in after-life of the honor men. It will be seen that a common belief that success at the University is no indication of success afterwards is altogether erroneous. I have endeavored also to note distinctions won by any who did not attain honors. In the Appendix, as far as our records show, the positions, however humble, held by our alumni in the Confederate Army, are given.

It may be objected that the subjects of the speeches by graduates unnecessarily encumber the volume. My reasons for recording them are, 1st, that they show what the students were thinking about, and, 2d, that the students of the present and future may have a treasure-house of themes, which may aid them in solving the difficult question, "what must I write about?"

I acknowledge with the deepest gratitude my obligations to Professor Collier Cobb, for aid in obtaining the faithful half-tones which grace the book, to Dr. J. G. deR. Hamilton, for the preparation of the very laborious and thorough index, and to Dr. C. L. Raper, for assistance in reading proofs of the first part of the volume.

One fact, not appearing on any record at Chapel Hill, has come to my knowledge since the volume was printed, that the Delta Psi Fraternity, with a large membership, was in the University from 1854 until some time during the war. I will be glad if all who may notice such derelictions will notify me of the same. I promise to give the proper corrections in the second volume.

I further express my thanks to the Honorable Board of Trustees for giving me free access to the University archives. I have explored them industriously, and used them with pains-taking endeavor to be accurate.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I TO P. 136. Constitution of 1776 and Charter of 1789--The Trustees, First meetings--Location of Site--donors--Laying Cornerstone--Sale of Chapel Hill lots--McCorckle's Plan of Studies; Dr. Ker, Presiding Professor; Opening day--Hinton James, the first student; Charles W. Harris, Professor of Mathematics; First Public Examination; Grammar School; The Literary Societies; The Pettigrew Letters; Davie's Plan of Education; By-Laws; Coming of Joseph Caldwell as Professor of Mathematics; His first impressions of the State and University. Resignation and career of Dr. Ker; Harris, his successor; His Resignation and career. Caldwell succeeds, gives place to Gillaspie; Examination of 1797. Early donations: Governor Benjamin Smith, General Thomas Person, Major Gerrard; Subscriptions; Lotteries; Gifts by Ladies of Newbern and Raleigh.

CHAPTER II TO P. 230. Gift of confiscated Property by the General Assembly; Extremely unpopular; Repealed and Escheats also taken away; Newspaper attacks on the University and defence by Caldwell; His defence of State institutions; Receipts from restored Escheats; First Graduates 1798; Disorders under Gillaspie; Strictures on Professor Holmes; Retirement of Gillaspie; Caldwell again Presiding; Graduates of 1799; of 1800; Professor A. D. Murphey; Graduates of 1801; Professor Wm. Bingham; Graduates of 1802; 1803; 1804; Recollections of Dr. Wm. Hooper; Caldwell elected President 1804; Graduates of 1805; Davie leaves the State; his Farewell Letter; Further Recollections of Dr. Hooper; Graduates of 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809; Abner W. Clopton; Graduates of 1810; Diploma of Dr. David Caldwell; Graduates of 1811, 1812; By-Laws; The early Stewards; Behavior of Old-time Students; A Duel, others threatened; Col. Polk's strong denunciation of them; Orgies of 22d February; The Rebellion against the Monitor law; The great Secession; Caldwell's Allegory; Letters of Chambers and Conner; Davie's letter on the subject; Faculty firm for subordination; students quail on another question. Sayings and incidents of a comical nature.

CHAPTER VI TO P. 785. Commencement of 1850; Smith Hall; Dangerous Riot; Methodist Church built; Fraternities begin; Office of Escheator-General created; the David Allison Escheat; Commencement of 1851, and 1852; Students against Faculty on appointment of a sub-Marshal. University Magazine of 1852-1861; Commencement of 1853, 1854; Charles Phillips Professor of Civil Engineering; B. S. Hedrick, of Application of Chemistry to Agriculture and the Arts; Increase of Numbers; Laws Revised; Baptist Church built; Commencement of 1855; New Salaries; Burning of Belfry; Case of Professor Hedrick; The Herrisse Controversy; New Buildings, Professors and Departments; The Curriculum; Preparation for Admission; Commencement of 1856; Invitation to Archbishop Hughes; Commencement of 1857; Death of Dr. Mitchell; His successor, Martin; Commencement of 1858; Lawlessness--the President's Circular; New Caldwell Monument; Changes in Faculty; The Buchanan Commencement, 1859; Disastrous Investment; Commencement of 1860; Attendance on Sunday services; Drs. Shipp and Wheat leave; Commencement of 1861; Salaries lowered; Hard Times; Commencement of 1862 and 1863; Rise of Prices and Depreciation of Currency; Exemption of Students; Col. Martin joins army; Commencement of 1864; Gold Bond; Cutting University trees; Wheeler's Cavalry and Kilpatrick's in Chapel Hill; Mrs. Spencer's elegiac ode; Feeling of Chapel Hillians; Commencement of 1865; University students in the war; Commencement of 1866; Securities lost; Transfer of Land Grant; Death of Dr. James Phillips; President Johnson's Commencement, 1867; Seward and Sickles; Dwindling of Faculty; Plan of Reorganization; Commencement of 1868; History of Expenses; Reconstruction; Treasurer Manly's Report; Swain not recognized; He Protests; His Death; Improvements during his administration; Scholarship; Successes of Alumni; The Displaced Professors; The two Societies.

APPENDIX. List of Graduates and of successful Alumni; List of Trustees from 1789; List of Executive Committee from 1835; List of Subscriptions to Start the University; Murphy's Statistics of Alumni.

History of University of North Carolina.

CHAPTER I.

THE CHARTER AND ORGANIZATION.

It might be claimed that the Centennial year of American Independence was likewise the Centennial year of the University of North Carolina, although the charter was not granted until 1789.

In December, 1776, a Convention, then called Congress, of enlightened men met at Halifax to form a Constitution for the new free State of North Carolina, under whose protection the people could maintain the independence they had declared a few months before.

Without an army or navy, they had entered on a war for existence with a nation powerful, populous and wealthy, having the tradition of invincibility, which had, under Marlborough, within the century, broken the power of the Great Louis of France--had, with heavy hand, crushed the fortunes of the Pretender at Culloden--had sent Wolfe to storm the Heights of Quebec; had swept the seas with her fleets. The Revolution, if it failed, was Rebellion. The penalty of defeat was the doom of traitors. The State had barely two hundred thousand inhabitants, widely scattered, and badly armed, and divided in sentiment. But, notwithstanding these odds, this Congress, with wisdom unparalleled and faith approaching sublimity, provided for the interest of unborn children. They knew that those children would not be capable of freedom without education. They knew that there could be no education without teachers. They knew that teachers could not be procured without colleges. They knew that their leaders in the pulpit and in civil offices had received their education in distant States and even in the mother country across the ocean. They resolved that their youth, seeking intellectual advancement, should not be temporarily expatriated in order to obtain it. They made the requirement of the University a part of the fundamental law. On the 18th of December, 1776, in the Constitution of

the new State, then first adopted, are found these golden words, written amid storms and thunderings, to be made good when the sun shone on a free and united people: "All useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities."

Tradition has it that this provision in the Constitution was due to the Scotch-Irish of Mecklenburg. Smarting under resentment caused by the disapproval by the Crown of the charter of Queen's College, its friends procured from the people of the county a positive instruction to their delegates to the Halifax Congress of 1776 to provide for a State college. Among these delegates was Waightstill Avery, a graduate of Princeton, likewise a member of the committee which reported the Constitution, and the tradition which credits him with being the draftsman of the University and public school clause is certainly plausible.

That our forefathers thought that the University and the public school system were necessarily part of one organism is proved by their connection in the Constitution. The section in which the General Assembly is commanded to provide the University is as follows: Section 41--"A school, or schools, shall be established by the legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices: and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities." It was clear to the statesmen of a hundred years ago, and it ought not to require argument to prove it, that money spent for schools without providing teachers is mere waste and folly. And certainly our forefathers who, with their hearts sore from the attempted domination of the Church of England in colonial times, inserted in the Constitution that, "no clergyman, or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of being a member, either of the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he continues in the exercise of the pastoral function," together with other provisions, completely serving the connection between the Church and the State, never designed that state schools should look to religious colleges exclusively for their teachers, nor did they wish to be dependent on other States.

During the War of the Revolution the mandate of the Constitution lay dormant. Inter arma silent leges. When Caswell and Lillington were beating McDonald at Moore's Creek Bridge, and Campbell, Shelby, Cleveland, Sevier, Williams and McDowell were capturing Ferguson's forces at King's Mountain, and Cornwallis and Greene were wrestling for the victory at Guilford, and Fanning was carrying as prisoner from Hillsboro the Governor of our State, and the momentous question whether our ancestors were patriots or traitors, was still undecided, there was no time for erecting universities. And after the war, industry must have time for restoring plenty to wasted lands and statesmanship to form a settled government in the place of a nerveless confederacy. In the month of November, 1789, our State, after a hesitation of a year, entered the American Union. In the month of December, as if forming part of a comprehensive plan, the charter of the University, under the powerful advocacy of Davie, was granted by the General Assembly. The Trustees under the charter comprised great men of the State, good men of the State, trusted leaders of the people.

The first named, and the chairman, was Governor Samuel Johnston, who, in legislative, executive and judicial stations, in war and peace, left the impress of his wise conservatism on the State. There were James Iredell, one of the earliest Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Alfred Moore, his successor in this high office. There were the first Federal District Judge, Colonel John Stokes, and John Sitgreaves, his successor.

There were the three signers of the Constitution of the United States: Hugh Williamson, the historian William Blount, afterwards Senator of the United States from Tennessee, and Richard Dobbs Spaight, who left Trinity College, Dublin, when scarcely of age, to fight for the independence of his native State. He served as delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, and of the United States, and as Governor of North Carolina. Of others destined to be Governors, there were Samuel Ashe, then Judge, Benjamin Williams, and the first benefactor of the University, Benjamin Smith, and William Richardson Davie, its father. There were military men,

who had been conspicuous fighters in the Revolution: General Joseph Graham, scarred with wounds in the defence of Charlotte under Davie, the father of the revered statesman, William A. Graham, whose last public appearance was in behalf of the University; General Thomas Person, whose hatred of injustice began with the disastrous struggles of the Regulation, William Lenoir, Joseph McDowell, the elder, and Joseph Dixon (or Dickson), who aided in thwarting the plans of Cornwallis by the capture of Ferguson at King's Mountain; Henry William Harrington, an active militia general in service on our southern borders.

Of the State judiciary we find three judges under the court law of 1777--Samuel Spencer, John Williams, and Samuel Ashe, already mentioned, whose name is worthily represented by his descendants, Thomas Samuel Ashe, late of Anson, and Samuel A. Ashe, of Raleigh; and of others distinguished in the history of the State--Archibald McLaine and Willie Jones, bold and active patriots, Stephen Cabarrus, long Speaker of the House of Commons, and John Haywood, the popular State Treasurer. There were the first two Senators of the United States--Samuel Johnston and Benjamin Hawkins, and of those destined to be members of the lower House of Congress were Charles Johnson, then Speaker of the State Senate, who had fought for the Stuarts at Culloden, James Holland of Guilford, Alexander Mebane of Orange, Joseph Winston of Surry, and William Barry Grove of Cumberland. We find in the list John Hay, the eminent lawyer of Fayetteville, who gave his name to Haymount; James Hogg, an enlightened merchant of Fayetteville and of Hillsboro; Adlai Osborne, the highly esteemed Clerk of Rowan Superior Court; the eminent teacher and divine, Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle, D.D.; and prominent and useful members of the State legislature, Frederick Hargett, Senator of Jones, Robert W. Snead, Senator of Onslow, Joel Lane, Senator from Wake, owner of the land bought for the site of the city of Raleigh, John Macon, Senator of Warren, brother of the more eminent Nathaniel Macon, John Hamilton, commoner of Guilford, William Porter, commoner of Rutherford, and Robert Dickson of Duplin.

Richardson Davie. He was no common man. He had been a gallant cavalry officer in the Revolution. He had been a strong staff on which Greene had leaned. He had been conspicuous in civil pursuits; an able lawyer, an orator of wide influence. With Washington and Madison, and other great men, he had assisted in evolving the grandest government of all ages, the American Union, out of an ill-governed and disintegrated confederacy. He was beyond his times in the advocacy of a broad, generous education. His portrait has been drawn by a masterly hand, Judge Archibald Murphey, one of the most progressive and scholarly men our State has known. In his speech before the two Societies at Chapel Hill in 1827 he says: "Davie was a tall, elegant man in his person, graceful and commanding in his manners. His voice was mellow, and adapted to the expression of every passion; his mind comprehensive yet slow in its operations, when compared with his great rival (Moore); his style was magnificent and flowing; he had a greatness of manner in public speaking which suited his style, and gave to his speeches an imposing effect. He was a laborious student, arranged his discourses with care, and where the subject merited his genius, poured forth a torrent of eloquence that astonished and enraptured his audience."

He had, in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, at a critical moment, caused the vote of North Carolina, then one of the large States, to be cast for a compromise, the equality of States in the Senate, without which union would have been impossible. In the State Conventions of 1788 and 1789 he had advocated the adoption of the new Constitution with equal ability. It was his foresight and wisdom which provided the University, by whose means North Carolina could keep pace in culture and influence with her sisters. He drew for the University the Plan of Studies pursued for many years, and maintained its interest by his purse, his eloquence, his counsels, and constant attention to its exercises. The Dialectic Society is the fortunate owner of an excellent portrait of this great man--the picture of a man of military bearing, strikingly handsome, a gentleman, a scholar and a statesman.

Such were the guardians into whose care the General Assembly committed the institution provided for the youth of North

Carolina. Six of them--McLean, Person, Ashe, Jones, Lane and Mebane--were carrying into effect the mandate of the Constitution for which as members of the Halifax Congress of 1776 they had voted. Twenty-three, viz: Hargett, Smith, McDowell, Hay, Grove, Cabarrus, Samuel Johnston, Charles Johnson, Robert Dickson, Hamilton, Person, Sneed, Mebane, Stokes, Holland, Winston, Blount, Williamson, Hawkins, Lane, Lenoir, Davie, and Porter, were members of the Convention of 1789, and of them only Dickson, Hamilton, Person, and Lenoir voted against the ratification of the Constitution of the United States.

The charter, granted by the General Assembly, was ratified December 11, 1789. The preamble, in wise and weighty words, asserts that, "in all well regulated governments it is the indispensable duty of every legislature to consult the happiness of a rising generation, and endeavor to fit them for an honorable discharge of the social duties of life by paying the strictest attention to their education, and that, a University, supported by permanent funds and well endowed, would have the most direct tendency to answer the above purpose."

Among the provisions of the charter, in addition to the usual powers of corporations, are the following:

The Trustees were a self-perpetuating body, having cooptative powers; being authorized to fill vacancies occurring by death, refusing to act, resignation or removal from the State.

The principle of having the Trustees distributed in the judicial districts was to be retained in all elections.

The first meeting of the Trustees was directed to be on the third Monday of the next General Assembly at Fayetteville, at which time were to be elected a President of the Board, and a Secretary. At all subsequent, regular, or annual meetings, the members present, with the President and Treasurer, or a majority without either of these officers, were to be a quorum.

Special meetings could be called by the President and two Trustees, notice being given to every Trustee, and advertisement to be made in the State Gazette. These meetings were prohibited from appropriating money, and from electing the President and Professors of the University. They, however, could fill a vacancy until the next annual meeting.

The meeting, at which the site of the University should be fixed upon, was to be advertized in the Gazette for at least six months and special notice given to each Trustee.

The Treasurer was to give bond, payable to the Governor, in the sum of £5,000 ($10,000), and to hold office for two years. If he should prove delinquent recovery was to be had as in the case of Sheriffs.

The Treasurer was directed to publish annually in the State Gazette a list of moneys and other donations under penalty of £100 ($200) at the suit of the Attorney-General, the penalties to belong to the University. The Treasurer was ordered to pay annually to the Treasurer of the State all moneys received by him, on which the State was to pay six per cent interest, the principal to be a permanent fund. (This was repealed four years afterwards.)

The site of the University was not to be within five miles of the seat of government, or any of the places of holding the courts of law or equity.

The Trustees could appoint a President of the University, and the professors and tutors, whom "they may remove for misbehavior, inability, or neglect of duty." They could "make all such laws and regulations for the government of the University and preservation of order and good morals therein as are usually made in such seminaries, and as to them may appear necessary: Provided, the same are not contrary to the inalienable liberty of a citizen or to the laws of the State."

The power of conferring degrees was given to the Faculty of the University, that is to say, the President and Professors, but the Trustees must concur.

Any subscriber of £10 ($20), payable in five equal annual installments, was entitled to have one student educated free of tuition.

The public hall, and the library and rooms of the college shall be called by the names of one or another of the six largest subscribers within four years. "And a book shall be kept in the library in which shall be entered the names and places of residence of every benefactor to this seminary, in order that posterity may be informed to whom they are indebted for the

The foregoing summary shows some provisions which appear strange in our eyes. For example, that any number of Trustees, no matter how small, should be a quorum, if only the President of the Board and the Treasurer should be present, neither of whom was necessarily a member. Then, again, the prohibition of locating the University within five miles of the seat of government or of any court town is contrary to our experience. It was doubtless on account of the rowdyism and drunkenness during court week, then so prevalent, now happily passing away. The provision that only the State should be the custodian of the donations of money and pay interest on the same, the University being prohibited from using the principal, seems inconsistent with the imperative duty of erecting buildings. Note also that only the President and Professors, excluding tutors, constitute the faculty, and that the Trustees have no power of conferring degrees, but can only confirm or reject the nominations of the faculty. The provision that a student should have his tuition for four years on a payment of $20 by a subscriber seems reckless, unless there was a general idea prevalent that tuition should be nearly free. The appeal to the vanity of the wealthy is interesting, firstly, because it shows that the projectors of the University, even in those dark days, had grand ideas as to the future, when without a dollar in sight they estimated no less than six buildings, to be essential, and, secondly, because the promise of honoring benefactors was made irrespective of the amounts to be given.

The fear that the Trustees might, in making their by-laws, be more severe on the students than would be consistent with the "Rights of Man," for which so much blood had been spilt, is shown in the protective clause that those laws should not be "contrary to the inalienable liberty of a citizen." It will be seen in the sequel that the young men interpreted this in the broadest latitude as negativing all restraint. The construction of this charter provision by the Trustees, that the professors and tutors were to be like police officers in carrying out the discipline of the institution, led to serious evils for very many years.

The locating of the Trustees in the several judicial districts in those days of bad roads, although possibly propitiating favor, was fatal to wise management. The expedient of giving wide powers to an executive committee of seven, which works so wisely now, had not then been thought of.

The power of the Trustees of filling vacancies in their body seemed harmless, if not wise. It was destined, however, to place the institution under the suspicion of being aristocratic, a suspicion fatal to its popularity in the days when there existed among the people a real fear of the introduction of English class distinctions and of a government monarchical in nature, though not in name. The provision was changed eventually, as will be seen.

On the whole, it seems probable that some of these outre provisions were inserted on the motion of members hostile to the movement, or by its friends for the purpose of placating them. Like the Fundamental Constitutions of the Lords Proprietors, the charter of the University is another evidence that all good government is the product of experience and growth, and can not be planned beforehand by the wit of man.

There was no appropriation of money made for erection of buildings or other expenditure for the new institution. An act was, however, passed which conferred on it certain claims, which the officers of the State had been unable to collect. These were arrearages due from sheriffs and other officers prior to January 1, 1783, none of them less than six years old and some far more. The proceeds of sales of confiscated lands were excepted from the gift, probably because the legislature deemed them easily collectible. A further exception was made of all the arrearages due by Robert Lanier, treasurer of the judicial district of Salisbury, and also those from the sheriffs of that district, but if they should not settle their dues in two years, the University was authorized to have all the uncollected residue.

The delinquents, sixty-eight in number, whose accounts were turned over by the act, were officers of the State or counties, some distinguished and of high character--such as General Horatio Gates, Governor Burke, Colonel Benjamin Cleveland.

General Hogan, Marquis de Bretigny. Evidently many were for agencies during the war, in which vouchers were lost or captured by the enemy, or the settlements of the agencies destroyed. Colonel Waightstill Avery, for example, was included in the list, but he promptly proved that there was a mistake, and his name was at once struck off. The following list shows more clearly the employments of those indebted to the State according to the Comptroller's report, which debts were transferred to the University: namely, Clerks, Sheriffs, purchasers of confiscated property, Judges (fees for lawyer's licenses), entry-takers, agents, purchasers of lots in Raleigh, commissionaries (commissaries?), purchasers of western lands, buyer of eleven head of cattle, also of four head of cattle, buyer of one horse, hirer of McKnight's negroes (McKnight was a Tory), debtors for specie certificates, also for "old dollar money," also for officer's certificates, entries of western lands, and certificates of the Auditors of the Upper Board of Salisbury.

At the same session was granted a right, shadowy, uncertain, well nigh in nubibus, but which in the course of time by skillful management brought considerable money into the treasury. This grant was such property as had escheated, or should thereafter escheat, to the State. This by the energy and good management of the Trustees, after a long period, was the source of the endowment of the University, lost in the Civil War. Many denizens of foreign birth left no heirs, citizens of North Carolina, and under the law as it stood until 1831, their lands escheated to the State; and in a like manner obscure soldiers of the Continental Line, to whom land warrants were granted for their services in the war, died leaving no heirs to inherit their claims. Of course the revenue from this source naturally diminished as the years rolled away from the Revolution, and it was still further diminished by acts of the Legislature giving the lands to a remoter heir, being a citizen, when the next heir is an alien, and giving the widow all the estate if her husband should die without an heir. At this day the chances of an escheat are worth but little, as an alien stands on the same footing with a citizen in regard to the possession of real estate.

It was not from parsimony but hard necessity that the long services of our patriot soldiers, in hunger, and thirst, and cold,

and nakedness, were paid for in a paper currency, like that of which the conquered Confederates have had such bitter experience. To this meagre dole was added for faithful service warrants for land to be located in a country of great fertility, but the homes of bears, panthers, and Indians, the western region of Tennessee, then a part of the domain of North Carolina. To a private was given 640 acres, to a lieutenant 2,560, to a Captain 3,840, to a Major 4,800, to a Colonel, or Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding, 7,200, to a Brigadier-General 12,000 acres. To the great General Greene, who had by his genius retrieved the fortunes of the war after Gates' disastrous failure, they gave 25,000 acres.

The gift of the unclaimed land warrants was for years to the University like the cool waters near the parched lips of Tantalus. North Carolina, in 1789, ceded all its territory of Tennessee to the United States. The new State, after its admission into the Union in 1796, claimed all the rights of sovereignty, and refused to give effect to the grants made by North Carolina.

The State of North Carolina would never have secured an acre of these lands. No argument but that they were to be used for education, had any weight with the legislators of Tennessee. The Trustees sent to plead their cause one of their most enlightened members and most skilled in the arts of managing men, Judge Archibald Murphey. Even he, with all his eloquence and address, was forced to a hard compromise. Two-thirds of the warrants were given to the College of East Tennessee and College of Cumberland, and one-third to the University of North Carolina. It was not until 1835, after suffering untold privations, staggering under a debt of nearly $40,000 to the banks, that funds were gathered from this source and from the donations of Smith, Gerrard and others, to lift its head above the waters. A detailed narrative of the negotiations will be given hereafter.

It is pleasant to note that by the providence of our ancestors the enemies of our country's freedom contributed, albeit unwillingly, to the enlightment of our people. But it is of pathetic interest to know that the ignorant soldiers of America, who,

after countless sufferings filled uncoffined graves, were not only gaining liberty for their country but, unintentional benefactors, were building a great institution of learning. They did glorious work, those "unnamed demigods of history," as Kossuth called them, blindly suffering martyrdom for a cause they dimly understood, but that cause triumphant and leading to never ending blessings of free institutions and liberal education.

The first meeting of the Trustees was on the 18th of December, 1789, seven days after the ratification of the charter. To copy from the record those present were:

The Hon. Charles Johnson, of Bertie, Chairman.

Hon. S. Cabarrus of Chowan.

James Holland of Rutherford.

Benjamin Smith of Brunswick.

John Stokes of Surry.

Hugh Williamson of Edenton.

William Blount of Tennessee.

Thomas Person of Granville.

William Porter of Rutherford.

William Lenoir of Wilkes.

Joseph Dixon of Lincoln.

Robert Dixon of Duplin.

Alexander Mebane of Orange.

John Hamilton of Guilford.

William R. Davie of Halifax.

Frederick Hargett of Jones.

James Hogg of Orange.

It will be noticed that the only persons dignified with the affix "Hon.," are Johnson and Cabarrus. That was because they were Speakers of the Senate and of the House respectively, and represented those august bodies. The title was then restricted as a rule to the actual incumbents of these and such high officers as President, Governor and Judge. It is now rapidly descending to the same dead level as that occupied by Mister, which itself has experienced the like degradation. Johnson, the grandfather of the late eminent Dr. Charles E. Johnson, of Raleigh, was a relation of Governor Gabriel and of Governor Samuel Johnston, but omitted "t" from his name because, having, when barely of age, fought for Charles Edward, he wished to conceal his identity.

It was thought for years, until the Supreme Court settled the question by deciding to the contrary, that the University is a private corporation. That the earliest Trustees thought differently is proved by the fact that they did not formally accept the charter, but organized at once as public officers.

Messrs. Davie and Hogg were requested to prepare blanks for subscriptions, one as specially directed by the Act of Assembly, the other on the principle of a mere donation.

Mr. Davie made the agreeable announcement that Colonel Benjamin Smith offered a gift to the University of 20,000 acres of land warrants. The Trustees recorded their thanks for "the liberal and generous donation."

Another early friend of the institution should be held in grateful remembrance. Governor Alexander Martin showed his interest by frequent attendance on the meetings of the Board, by occasional timely gifts and by advocating in his message to the General Assemblies its establishment and maintenance. In the fall of 1790 he wrote, "This institution already stamped with importance, having the great cause of humanity for its object, might do honor to this and the neighboring States, had it an adequate support, where our youth might be instructed in true religion, sound policy and science, and men of ability drawn forth to fill the different departments of government with reputation, or be formed for useful and ornamental members of society in private or professional life." He then recommends a loan for erecting buildings to "give it a more essential than a paper being."

The second meeting of the Board of Trustees, the first prescribed by the charter, was held likewise in Fayetteville on the 25th of November, 1790. General William Lenoir, of Wilkes County, President of the Senate, a hero of King's Mountain, on the nomination of the Speaker of the House, Stephen Cabarrus, was made President of the Board. He, first of a long line of eminent men who held this office, was the last survivor of the original Trustees, dying at the age of 88, just fifty years after the enactment of the charter. In such high estimation was he held that an eastern county and a western town were named in his honor.

Changes had occurred in the Board of Trustees. The old heroes were dropping off. The venerable Robert Dixon gave way to James Kenan, grandfather of our worthy Trustee and President of our Alumni Association; and battle-scarred Judge Winston to Alexander Martin, who, like our Vance, had been Governor in times of war, and, after a long interval, in times of peace occupied the executive chair. James Hogg proceeded to the welcome duty of presenting to the Board patents for the 20,000 acres of land, donated at the preceding meeting by

General Smith. On the resignation, by Colonel Lenoir, of the chairmanship, Governor Alexander Martin was chosen as his successor. On balloting for the office of Treasurer, John Craven, the State Comptroller, an old bachelor of Halifax County, was unanimously elected. His bondsmen were Colonel John Macon, of Warren, and General Thomas Person, of Granville. James Taylor, a Commoner from Rockingham County, was with like unanimity chosen Secretary. It was agreed that the place of the next meeting should be selected by ballot. Hillsborough, Salem, Williamsburg (now Williamsboro), Goshen (in Granville), Rockingham and Wake Court House were placed in nomination. The vote of the majority was for Hillsboro. It is pleasant to note the care taken to satisfy all sections that the location of the University should be fairly made. It was resolved that at the next meeting on the third Monday of July, 1791, the special business should be the selection of the site. Each Trustee was notified of this and a copy of the resolutions was ordered to be published in the State Gazette for six months. [In those days the General Assembly designated some newspaper as the official organ of the State. At this date it was the North Carolina Journal at Halifax, published by Hodge & Willis. Hodge was the uncle of the prominent Raleigh citizen, William Boylan, and brought him from New Jersey to assist him in his publications.]

The Board of Trustees ordered that the efforts to obtain donations should be continued. As was hoped by its friends, the University was a more successful collector than the State. On December 6, 1790, the empty treasury was gladdened by the receipt of $2,706.41, paid by John Harvey, Clerk of Perquimans Court, recovered from a delinquent "Commissioner of Specifics." This was by the Trustees, as then required by the charter, invested in United States stock created by the financial ability of Alexander Hamilton.

At the July, 1791, meeting Robert Burton, of Granville, father of Judge Robert H. Burton, of Lincolnton, and great grandfather of the distinguished North Carolina General, Robert F. Hoke, and great-great-grandfather of the still more distinguished (in athletic circles) Captain of our football team which

took the scalp of the University of Virginia team at Atlanta--Dr. Mike Hoke--was chosen Secretary in the place of James Taylor, resigned. Probably on account of the meagre amount of money on hand and in sight, no steps were taken to select the site, but vigorous action was had for the collection of the arrearages and escheats granted by the Assembly. Each Trustee was authorized to act as agent of the Board in the matter of escheats, and attorneys, vested with full powers of collection and compromise in regard to them and the arrearages, were appointed in each judicial district. As evidently the lawyers who combined ability, integrity, activity, and friendship to the University, were chosen, I give their names. They were Edmund Blount for the Edenton District, David Perkins for that of New Bern, William H. Hill for that of Wilmington, Thomas F. Davis for that of Fayetteville, Adlai Osborne for that of Salisbury, Waightstill Avery for that of Morgan, William Watters for that of Hillsborough, and John Whitaker for that of Halifax. The sensibilities of the modern lawyer will be shocked by the statement that they were required to give bond with good security for performance of duty.

The Trustees made a manly implied confession of ignorance on the subject of the great task resting on their shoulders and displayed a proper carefulness to perform their duties intelligently, when they appointed Rev. Dr. McCorckle, the teacher, Benjamin Hawkins, the Federal Senator, and Dr. Hugh Williamson, an ex-professor of the University of Pennsylvania, then a member of Congress from the Edenton District, to procure for the use of the Board information respecting the laws, regulations, and buildings of the universities and colleges in the United States, together with an account of their resources and expenditures, and an estimate of the cost of the necessary buildings for our University. The confidence of the Board in James Hogg, Alfred Moore, and John Haywood, was shown by taking away from a large committee, previously appointed, the power of selecting a device for a seal of the corporation, and conferring it on them. They chose the face of Apollo, the God of Eloquence, and his emblem, the rising sun, as expressive of the dawn of higher education in our State.

At New Bern, in December, 1791, William Lenoir, in behalf of a committee, consisting of himself, Stephen Cabarrus, Benjamin Williams, John Haywood (the Treasurer), Joseph McDowell, of Pleasant Garden, and Samuel Johnston, made a woeful report on the finances, present and prospective, of the institution. The total cash was $301.24, received from arrearages. There was hope that more would be realized, which the committee estimated at $300. The University owned also a certificate of United States loan for $2,706.41, of which under the charter only the interest, six per cent, could be used. The subscription papers sent out had not been returned and the amount to be expected from them was not ascertainable.

The committee pathetically state that they are "pained when they reflect how extremely illy the resources of the Trustees are proportioned to their necessities." As to the claims due the State from Colonial days, no evidence is found in regard to them "other than a report or list of balances made out by a committee of the Assembly in 1773."

As to the arrearages voted to the University, which arose under the State government, it is stated that for many years after the Revolution the revenue business was under a Treasurer in each district, some of whom knew not how to keep accounts; that the Treasurer of New Bern had fled the State, carrying his books with him; the Treasurer of Salisbury District had died, leaving his account in such bad shape that the executor, William Lanier, had induced the General Assembly to close them by settlement. When Treasurers duly settled their accounts, their books and papers were sent to the agent of the State in Philadelphia to be used in supporting the claims of North Carolina against the United States for troops and supplies furnished during the Revolution, and the only evidences of debts accessible are the statements of the Comptroller as to balances appearing on his books.

Of these there had been delivered to the Trustees claims against seventy-three persons. The nominal amount was in round numbers $11,410, ranging all the way from $2,660 against one person to $3 against another. One claim was for $4.10, the equivalent of $410 "old Dollar money." Among them was an account against Governor Burke for about $100,

another for "£1,056 Dollar Money," scaled down to $35.40; another against no less a man than Colonel Benjamin Cleveland for $368.00. Doubtless many of these claims had been settled and the vouchers lost during the war.

As has been stated there had been collected the sum of $2,706.41 from the arrearages due by delinquent collecting officers. By activity and skill the attorneys of the University succeeded eventually in wresting from this source the scarcely hoped for total of $7,362, of which the interest only could be used.

Steps were again taken to raise money by subscription. On November 5, 1792, papers were circulated inviting donations payable one year after the selection of the site. Most of the promises by citizens of Orange County were made on condition that the location should be therein.

On December 23, 1791, a committee, whose names are not given in the journal, reported a memorial to the General Assembly asking for a loan of $10,000 in order to erect the buildings necessary for opening the institution. The measure was placed under the charge of Davie, who was a member of the House for the Borough of Halifax. His speech in support of it is thus described by Judge Murphey in his address of 1826: "I was present in the House of Commons when Davie addressed that body upon the bill granting a loan of money to the Trustees for erecting the buildings of the University, and although more than thirty years have since elapsed. I have the most vivid recollection of the greatness of his manner and the powers of his eloquence on that occasion." The appeal was successful. The loan was afterwards converted into a gift--the only appropriation ever made from the State Treasury until the annuity of $5,000, granted in 1881, with the exception of $7,000 for the suffering officers soon after the Civil War.

This loan was not secured without a struggle. There were many members who believed that the people's money should not be expended for any purpose other than the prevention and punishment of crime, settling disputes among citizens and other similar governmental functions. The vote was 57 to 53 in the House of Commons and 28 to 21 in the Senate. Among those

who supported the measure in the House were Messrs. Richard Blackledge and John Lanier of Beaufort, David Stone of Bertie, Joseph McDowell, Jr., of Burke, David Vance of Burke, Thomas Granberry of Gates, Wm. E. Lord and Benjamin Smith of Brunswick, Richard Benbury of Chowan, Willis Alston of Halifax, Ebenezer Slade of Martin, Timothy Bloodworth of New Hanover. The affirmative Senators were Joseph McDowell (Quaker Meadows) of Burke, Gautier of Bladen, F. Campbell of Cumberland, Carney of Craven, Charlton of Bertie, Dauge of Camden, Kennedy of Beaufort, Humphries of Currituck, Reddick of Gates, Eborn of Hyde, Gray of Johnston, Hargett of Jones, Dixon of Lincoln, Mayo of Martin, Person of Granville, Sneed of Onslow, Benford of Northampton, Skinner of Perquimans, Moye of Pitt, Williams of Richmond, Willis of Robeson, Singleton of Rutherford, Lane of Wake, Macon of Warren, Swann of Pasquotank, Dickens of Caswell, Johnson of (county doubtful).

Opposed to the bill were Wade of Anson, Bell of Carteret, J. Stewart of Chatham, Tyson of Moore, Graham of Mecklenburg, J. A. Campbell of New Hanover, Turner of Montgomery, Quails of Halifax, Wynns of Hertford, Hill of Franklin, Winston of Stokes, Clinton of Sampson, Berger of Rowan, Griffin of Nash, Galloway of Rockingham, Edwards of Surry, Hodge of Orange, Wood of Randolph, Gillespie of Guilford, Caldwell of Iredell, Phillips of Edgecombe. A very few did not vote, among them, Wm. Lenoir, it not being the custom for the Speaker to vote except in case of a tie. On inspecting the list it will be found that three of the affirmative Senators. Stone, Hargett and Lane, were on the Committee of Location, Reddick was for eleven years Speaker of the Senate, Dixon and Lane were Trustees. Of the opponents Hodge and Stewart would have probably voted differently if they had foreseen the location in Orange, near the Chatham line. It is surprising to see New Hanover, noted for its liberality, in this column. Doubtless Campbell misrepresented his constituents. It is equally surprising to see General Thomas Wynns and General Joseph Graham opposing higher education. The mistake of Graham is amply atoned for by the constant and active friendship to the University of his broad-minded sons and grandsons.

It was not until January, 1792, that further steps were taken to select the University site. On that day a resolution was passed appointing Judge John Williams, General Thomas Person, General Alexander Mebane, Colonel John Macon, Colonel Benjamin Williams, Colonel Joel Lane, and General Alfred Moore, or any three of them, to examine the "most proper and eligible situations whereon to fix the University, in the counties of Wake, Franklin, Warren, Orange, Granville, Chatham and Johnston," and ascertain the terms on which such situation can be bought and report to the next meeting. Probably the committee failed to act, as no report was made by them. Action under the resolutions was not had, by common consent a different method being deemed advisable.

THE LOCATION.

A second resolution was passed that the Board meet at Hills-borough on the 1st of August, 1792, in order to determine the location, and that due notice be given to each Trustee.

At the time and place appointed the attendance of members proved the interest taken in the question. There were present 25 Trustees out of 40. The largest number in these days of easy railroading is 39 out of 80, in 1885, when six professors were elected. Such patriotic sacrifice of comfort in the heated dog-days deserves to be recorded. Those who answered to the roll-call were as follows:

Alexander Martin, Governor, of Guilford; Hugh Williamson, the historian, of Chowan; Benjamin Williams, afterwards Governor, of Moore; John Sitgreaves, Judge United States District Court, of Craven; Fred. Hargett, State Senator, of Jones; Richard Dobbs Spaight, the elder, elected Governor that year, of Craven; William H. Hill, member of the Legislature and of Congress, of New Hanover; James Hogg, merchant, of Cumberland; Samuel Ashe, then Judge, afterwards Governor, of New Hanover; John Hay, lawyer, of Cumberland; William Barry Grove, member of Congress, of Cumberland; Col. Wm. Polk, member of the Legislature, then of Mecklenburg; Judge John Williams, of Granville; Alexander Mebane, afterwards member of Congress of Orange; Joel Lane, member of the Senate, of Wake; Alfred Moore, then member of the Legislature,

afterwards Judge of the Supreme Court, of Brunswick; Willie Jones, of Halifax; Benjamin Hawkins, Senator in Congress, of Warren; John Haywood, State Treasurer, then of Edgecombe; Rev. Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, a distinguished preacher and teacher, of Rowan; William Richardson Davie, afterwards Governor, of Halifax; Joseph Dixon, State Senator, afterwards member of Congress, of Lincoln; Joseph McDowell, Jr., member of the Legislature, of Burke; William Porter, member of the Legislature, of Rutherford; Adlai Osborne, Clerk of the Superior Court of his county, a well-read and influential man, of Rowan.

According to localities, counting New Hanover as an eastern county, and Cumberland, Warren and Guilford as middle counties, there were ten eastern, nine middle and six western trustees.

Willie Jones submitted a motion, which was adopted, that the Board would not select any particular spot, but would choose by ballot a place with liberty of locating within fifteen miles thereof.

The places in nomination were as follows: Raleigh, in Wake County; Williamsboro, in Granville County; Hillsboro, in Orange County; Pittsboro, in Chatham County; Cyprett's Bridge, over New Hope, in Chatham; Smithfield, in Johnston County; Goshen, in Granville County.

The Board proceeded to ballot and Cyprett's or Cipritz's Bridge, now Prince's Bridge, on the great road from New Bern by Raleigh to Pittsboro, was chosen. The fifteen miles radius allowed a range over wide areas of Chatham, Wake and Orange; from the highlands of New Hope to the hills of Buckhorn; from the Hickory Mountain to the eminence overlooking our beautiful capital on the west. The same influences which secured that the capital should be located within ten miles of Isaac Hunter's plantation, in Wake County, that is, as near the centre of the State as possible, carried this vote.

On the 4th of August, 1792, the Board adopted an ordinance to carry into effect the selection of the University site within the circle described. One commissioner from each judicial district was appointed by ballot. There were from the Morganton

District, Wm. Porter, of Rutherford; the Salisbury District, John Hamilton, of Guilford; the Hillsboro District, Alex. Mebane, of Orange; the Halifax District, Willie Jones, of Halifax; the Edenton District, David Stone, of Bertie; the New Bern District, Frederick Hargett, of Jones; the Wilmington District, William H. Hill, of New Hanover; the Fayetteville District, James Hogg, of Cumberland. They were to meet in Pittsboro on November 1, 1792, prepared to visit in person all places deemed eligible.

At the appointed time a majority convened in Pittsboro, viz.: Hargett, Mebane, Hogg, Hill, Stone, and Jones. It was an excellent committee. Senator Hargett, a Revolutionary captain, had already assisted as commissioner in locating and laying out the city of Raleigh. Alexander Mebane had been a member of the Convention which framed the State Constitution and a useful officer of the Revolutionary army. He had long served the county of Orange in the State Legislature, and the year after this was elected to the Congress of the United States. James Hogg was an influential merchant, afterwards of Hillsborough, among whose descendants are the Binghams, Norwoods, Webbs, Hoopers, and others. Wm. H. Hill, a descendant of Governor Yeamans, was an able lawyer of Wilmington, afterwards State Senator and member of Congress. David Stone, then a member of the House of Commons from Bertie, afterwards Governor and Senator of the United States, was a well educated and accomplished young man. Willie Jones was one of the most active and influential men of the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods, as Chairman of the Committee of Safety, wielding executive authority in 1776, a member of the Continental Congress, likewise a commissioner to select the site for the seat of government.

We have the journal of these Commissioners, giving a brief account of their labors among the wooded hills of Chatham and Orange in the early days of November, when the forests were clothed with their changing hues of russet and green, gold and crimson, when the squirrels chattered in the hickories and the deer peered curiously through the thick underwood, and the hospitable farmers welcomed them with hearty greetings,

and the good ladies brought out their foamiest cider and sweetest courtesies, while on the sideboard, according to the bad customs of that day, stood decanters of dark-hued rum and ruddy apple brandy and the fiery juice of the Indian corn, which delights to flow in the shining of the moon. I give some extracts from the report submitted by the Chairman, Senator Hargett, as it is more satisfactory to have the narration in the language of the old soldier who saw bloody service under Washington.

PITTSBORO, Nov. 1st, 1792.

Sundry commissioners appointed by the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina to view the country within fifteen miles of Cypret's bridge, and to fix on the seat of the University, met according to the order of the board, to-wit: Frederick Harget, Alexander Mebane, James Hogg, William Hill, David Stone, and Willie Jones.

November 2nd.

Appointed Frederick Harget Chairman; proceeded to view the Gum Spring belonging to Philip Meroney; also Matthew Jones's, John Mentoe's, and Matthew Ramsey's lands (near Pittsboro), and received their proposals. Sundry gentlemen of the county of Chatham offered further donations to the amount of four hundred and odd pounds, (exclusive of £1302 offered as a donation to the board at Hillsboro), provided the University was fixed at the fork of Haw and Deep rivers; and Ambrose Ramsey, Patrick St. Lawrence, George Lucas, John Mebane, Panthareup Harman and Thomas Stokes, guaranteed to the amount of £1,500; they having all the subscriptions to themselves, provided the University was established in the aforesaid fork.

November 3rd.

Proceeded to view Richard Kennan's place, and Lasseter's Hill, and received the proposals of the respective proprietors.

November 4th.

Mr. David Stone absent. The other commissioners proceeded to Captain Edwards' and the widow Edwards' places, on the north side of Haw River and received proposals.

November 5th.

Viewed Tignal Jones' place, commonly called "Parker's." No proposals were offered by the proprietor; but Tignal Jones, junior, and Robert Cobb offered a donation of 500 acres of land adjoining the place.

Willie Jones handed to the commissioners an offer of Col. Joel Lane, of 640 acres near Nathaniel Jones', at the cross-roads, in Wake County, provided the University was fixed at said Nathaniel Jones'. Then proceeded to view New Hope Chapel Hill, in Orange County.

Received offers of donations of land to the amount of 1,290 acres of land, eight hundred and forty of which lie on Chapel Hill or adjoining thereto, and the remainder within four or five miles or thereabouts.

November 7th, 8th, and 9th.

Received also subscriptions for donations in money to the amount of £798, or thereabouts; but it must be observed these donations, both land and money are conditional; that is to say that the University shall be established on Chapel Hill for the seat of the University. Same day several persons executed deeds for their respective land-donations to the University, viz:

Col. Jno. Hogan

for 200 acres

No. 1

Mr. Benj. Yergan

for 51 acres

No. 2

Mr. Matthew McCauley

for 150 acres

No. 3

Mr. Alex. Piper

for 20 acres

No. 4

Mr. James Craig

for 5 acres

No. 5

Mr. Christ'r Barbee

for 221 acres

No. 6

Mr. Edmund Jones

for 200 acres

No. 7

Mr. Mark Morgan ex't'd bond with surety to convey

for 107 acres

No. 8

Mr. John Daniel executed bond with surety to convey

for 107 acres

No. 9

Mr. Hardy Morgan, deed

for 125 acres

No. 10

1,180

Mr. Thomas Connelly, who subscribed 100 acres, or thereabouts, and Mr. William McCauley, who subscribed 100 acres, could not immediately convey, but have promised to execute deeds and deliver them to Mr. James Hogg, who will transmit to the board.

Mr. John Hogan entered into contract to make and deliver 150,000 bricks at 40c. per hund. as per contract.

Mr. Hogan also presented proposals for leasing some of the land on Chapel Hill, which are submitted to the board.

Mr. Edmund Jones made proposals for supplying plank and lumber, which are presented to the board.

FREDERICK HARGET, Chairman.

JAMES HOGG,

ALEX. MEBANE,

WM. H. HILL.

The board taking the foregoing into consideration concurred therewith.

This report shows that, not discouraged at having failed to secure the
location of the seat of government at what is now

the
village of Haywood, at the confluence of Haw and Deep Rivers, a determined
effort was made to secure the University at the same point. If it had met with
success our boys could add boat races to our athletic contests. The land
speculators of one hundred years ago bought lots in this town of paper in the
confident belief that it was destined to be a commercial and manufacturing
city, but Haywood has taken its place by the side of Brunswick, Bath and other
vanished or dwarfed "boom-towns" of the past.

Notice also that Joel Lane, having secured the location of the capital on
part of his broad acres, sought ineffectually to capture the University. This
shows the combination which carried the vote for Cypritt's Bridge as the centre
of the circle inside of which its home should be. Lane had been a Halifax man
and was a warm friend of Davie and of Willie Jones. The influence of these
three, together with that of the Cape Fear Trustees, was greater than any other
locality could command.

Let me describe the spot selected more particularly, as it appeared to the
eyes of the Commissioners.

The construction of railroads has made a wonderful change in the relative
importance of our public highways. In the old days those who made tobacco
rolled it away to Petersburg, little wheels being attached to the hogsheads.
Those who made corn generally converted it into hogs and drove them on foot to
Philadelphia or Charleston. Wheat was ground into flour and sent by wagon to
distant markets--to Fayetteville, Wilmington, New Bern, and Petersburg,
and the villages by the way. The corn and rye not fed to swine were changed to
whiskey and the fruit into brandy, and that which escaped the capacious throats
of the neighborhood drinkers was peddled along the road to the rural drinkers
or sold in bulk to the village shops. In violation of all rules of political
economy a man was at the same time an agriculturist, a manufacturer, a
transporter, a wholesale merchant, a retailer and a voracious consumer.

The returning wagons carried home supplies of molasses and sugar, iron and
salt, shot and powder and flints, not forgetting the ribbons and combs and such
paraphernalia that ladies

in all ages will obtain to gild
the refined gold of their personal charms. They were the vehicles also of the
news of the day, there being no post-office nearer than Tarboro. The wondering
neighbors heard from these drivers what was going on in the big
world--that Washington had consented to accept a second term of the
Presidency, that the heads of the King and Queen of France had rolled into the
guillotine basket, that the allied armies had been driven back from the Rhine;
and then what has proved to be of more importance than all the victories of the
armies or the discrowning of kings that a Yankee schoolmaster, named Whitney,
had invented a machine for picking seed out of cotton; and every old lady
paused in the musical whir of her spinning-wheel to listen to the astounding
intelligence, not more than three months old, that in the old country a man
named Arkwright was spinning yarn by water power, and more incredible still a
preacher, named Cartwright, was weaving cloth by wood and iron instead of human
muscle.

From these causes the roads of those days, though over them rolled no
modern carriages or effeminate buggies, or bicycles, or horse-scaring
automobiles, frequently resounded with the heavy wheels of the covered wagons;
and the cross-roads were places of importance where wagoners and the neighbors
met for business and social enjoyments, listened to political speeches, and
more rarely to homely but heart-stirring sermons.

The great roads from Petersburg to Pittsboro and the country beyond, and
from New Bern towards Greensboro and Salisbury crossed on this eminence. At the
northeast corner of the cross was a chapel of the Church of England, a sad
relic of the futile efforts to establish a church in North Carolina. The
locality was called New Hope Chapel Hill or the Hill of New Hope Chapel. The
eminence is a promontory of granite, belonging to the Laurentian system, and
extends into the sandstone formation to the east, which was once the bed of a
long sheet of water stretching from near New York to the centre of Georgia. We
have in our Museum pieces of rock formed from the mud and sand at the bottom of
this old bay on which are ripple marks of the waves and prints of the plants
and animals that grew in its shallows. It was on

this
plateau, elevated 250 feet above the country on the east, 503 feet above the
ocean, then as now celebrated for its magnificent forests of oak and hickory,
its springs of cool and purest water, its pleasant, mudless, dustless soil, its
genial, healthful climate, on whose hillsides the mountain flora blossom, that
the home of the University was fixed.

We are fortunate in having a contemporary description of the site in
Davie's own words, when he was full of enthusiasm after eating his dinner,
according to tradition, under the old poplar which bears his name.

"The seat of the University is on the summit of a very high ridge.
There is a very gentle declivity of 300 yards to the village, which is situated
in a handsome plain, considerably lower than the site of the public buildings,
but so greatly elevated above the surrounding country as to furnish an
extensive and beautiful landscape, composed of the heights in the vicinity of
Eno, Flat and Little Rivers."

"The ridge appears to commence about half a mile directly east of
the building, where it rises abruptly several hundred feet. This peak is called
Point Prospect. The flat country spreads out below like the ocean, giving an
immense hemisphere in which the eye seems lost in the extent of
space."

"There is nothing more remarkable in this extraordinary place than
the abundance of springs of the purest and finest water, which burst from the
side of the ridge, and which have been the subjects of admiration both to
hunters and travelers ever since the discovery and settlement of this part of
the country."

It will be noticed that the name Point Prospect has been changed to
"Piney" Prospect. In old times point was pronounced a pint, and the
change was natural, especially as the hill has pines growing on it and masses
of these trees are the chief features of the scenery. I add that the water
flowing from these springs into the creeks north and south of us have created
an endless variety of hill and dale, with surprising wealth of flora, even the
rhododendron of the mountains, which Gray stated until Dr. Simonds showed him
our plant, could not grow below 1.800 feet.

THE DONORS OF THE SITE.

Nearly all of these donors were part of that band of immigrants, which
leaving Pennsylvania sought on the waters of the Haw, the Deep, the Yadkin, and
the Catawba a more peaceful home, one farther removed from warring Indians and
scheming Frenchmen in the countries bordering on the Alleghany and the
Monongahela. They were of plain, honest, unambitious stock, possibly more moved
to their generosity by the hope of increasing the value of the broad acres
retained by them than by love of letters and far-seeing patriotism.

Most of what I know of their history I derived from my most intelligent
friend, the late Captain John R. Hutchings, whose farm lies in full view from
Piney Prospect on the extreme right.

Col. John Hogan was an officer of the Revolution, in the militia
service, which was arduous and perilous, especially when Cornwallis'
headquarters were at Hillsboro and armed bands of British and Tories were
harrying the central counties. His residence was in the county of Randolph, and
his descendants are in that and Davidson counties. One of them was the
estimable wife of Dr. Wm. R. Holt, a President of the North Carolina
Agricultural Society and the introducer of Devon cattle and other blooded stock
into the valley of the Yadkin. She was the nearest relation to the benefactress
of the University, Mary Ruffin Smith.

Matthew and William McCauley were of the few who came over directly from
the north of Ireland. They were from the county of Antrim. According to
tradition Matthew, when a youth, became involved in one of the numerous
insurrections against British rule, and, concealed in a hogshead, was shipped
as freight to the colonies in the new world. Settling on Morgan's Creek he, by
industry and skill, succeeded in buying much land and establishing a mill on
that creek of such wide celebrity that the roads in the neighborhood were
marked off by the number of miles to it. He owned also a blacksmith shop, which
met with a large patronage in the days when nails and horseshoes were made by
hand. His dwelling still stands, low-pitched, high-roofed, with small windows
on the old Hillsboro and Pittsboro road. The mill has gone to decay.

Matthew McCauley was thrown on his own resources before having an
opportunity to procure book education, but was a very intelligent man and good
citizen. A story told on him seems to prove the truth of the statement that
"there are no snakes in Ireland." Shortly after his arrival in
Orange County he was struck by the beauty of a rattlesnake which crossed his
path. He caught it, fortunately around the neck, and carried it to an old lady
with the inquiry, "what is this pretty beast?" Following the
terrified advice of the lady he succeeded in throwing it away so as to escape
its poisonous fangs. Another story was considered very mirthful in the old
days. A neighbor made him a gift of a pair of snuffers, most useful when
home-made tallow candles were in vogue. He carried them home in triumph, and
when the light became dim snuffed the candle with his fingers as usual and
deposited the charred end of the wick in the snuffers with the triumphant
remark that it was very "usiary," (useful).

He was a faithful soldier in the Revolutionary army. The General
Assembly raised the grades of officers of the line, so that he was after the
war a captain, but on the roster of Continental officers he is placed as first
lieutenant of the 10th Regiment of Continental troops, his commission being
dated April 19, 1777, Abraham Shepard being his colonel. While engaged under
orders in recruiting service he was captured by the Tories and imprisoned for
three months. Such was his hatred of Tories that even in old age, though of
only medium size, he was eager to pick a quarrel and fight with any of that
party whom he chanced to meet.

He left many children. One of his sons settled in Kentucky. Another, a
lawyer, William by name, was a student and then steward of the University.
William left two sons, one of them, Samuel, was once Mayor of Monroe; the
other, Charles Maurice Talleyrand McCauley, was a gallant captain in the
Confederate army, a good lawyer and, as Senator from Union in the General
Assembly, was always a supporter of the institution, which his grandfather
helped to provide. A grandson, bearing the honored name of Matthew McCauley,
resides on a part of the old plantation, though not in the old home.

William McCauley, a brother of the first Matthew, lived a few miles west
of Chapel Hill in the district called the "Great Meadows," a leader
in his county. He is the ancestor of the prosperous merchant of Chapel Hill,
David McCauley, who is also a descendant of Matthew McCauley, by the
"spindle," i. e., female line. William was a member of the lower
house of the General Assembly during most of the Revolutionary War, and of the
Senate from 1784 to 1788 inclusive. The confidence of the people of Orange was
further shown to him by sending him as a delegate to the Convention of 1788
held at Hillsborough, which postponed the ratification of the Constitution of
the United States. In common with the rest of the Orange delegates he voted for
the postponement.

Benjamin Yeargin was a son of the Rev. Andrew Yeargin, a Methodist
preacher in Virginia and North Carolina, after whom the first Methodist church
in Virginia, Yeargan's Chapel, was named. Benjamin was a worthy farmer, owning
the land for a long distance along Bowlin's Creek. He was also the schoolmaster
of the neighborhood. His mill, part of the mudsill still in situ, at a romantic
defile called Glenburnie, was the first in the southern part of Orange County.
His dwelling-house was near the creek. The northern part of his land is the
farm owned by Mr. Oregon Tenney, and in it boarded President Polk, Judge
William H. Battle and other students who preferred to walk nearly two miles
over the rough hills rather than take meals at Steward's Hall. One of his sons,
Mark Morgan Yeargin, was a student of the University in 1807, and settled at
Henderson in Kentucky. His descendants are now over many States, principally
North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. Two of them, Leonidas Hillary Yeargan,
of New York, and Hillary H. L. Yeargan, M.D., of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, have
published a neat booklet--the origin and genealogy of the Yeargan family
from 1730 to 1890.
*

*The name was spelt differently by different members of the family,
Yeargin, Yeargan, Yeargon.

Christopher Barbee, familiarly known as "Old Kit," one of
the largest landowners of this county, had his residence on a commanding
eminence called The Mountain, three miles

east of the
village of Chapel Hill. He was a familiar figure for many years, said Dr.
Charles Phillips, riding into the village on horseback with a little negro
behind him, his destination being his blacksmith shop on Main street. He had
two sons, William and Willis. William increased an estate already considerable,
and at one time represented the county in the Legislature. Willis was a
physician in the same neighborhood, after being a student of the University in
1818. One of the granddaughters of William Barbee married Wm. R. Kenan, of
Wilmington. Their son was a recent student and instructor in the University. A
great-grandson, William B. Stewart, was a graduate in 1881, and another, John
Guthrie, was a student in 1896. A grandson, Belfield William Cave, was a
graduate of 1848; and another, William F. Hargrave, was a student in 1866. The
mill at the foot of the upper Laurel Hill, to which so many pilgrimages are
made by young men and maidens, was known for many years as Barbee's Mill, and
then Cave's Mill, after the name of one of his sons-in-law.

The land on which the mill just mentioned was built was in 1792 the
property of John Daniel, another of the donors. His residence was on the road
between the mill and the village, and the grave of the owner is very near it.
He was the surveyor for the Trustees, and his map of the University lands and
vicinity is in our archives. After his death his family moved to the
Mississippi Territory, now State.

Mark Morgan, one of the earliest settlers, lived on his lands, bought of
Earl Granville, three miles southeast of the village, the land reaching to the
summit of New Hope Chapel Hill. Of his two sons John moved west in 1823, and
Solomon lived and died on the homestead. Half of his land, about 800 acres
including the homestead, descended to his daughter, Mary Elizabeth, the wife of
Rev. James Pleasant Mason. She bequeathed it to the University to found a fund
in memory of her daughters, Martha and Varina, who died within a month of one
another just after budding into womanhood.

In the latter part of his life. Solomon, who had been a man of
neighborhood prominence, a Justice of the Peace, became feeble-minded and a
guardian of his property was appointed

He was allowed to
have a horse of his own, and on one occasion swapped horses with a traveler,
obtaining in exchange a noble black much superior to his own. Discovering that
he had been overreached the trader endeavored to procure a rescission of the
trade, and on Solomon's refusal threatened to appeal to his guardian.
"Oh," said Solomon, "my guardian was appointed to keep people
from cheating me and not to keep me from cheating them." And he kept his
horse. It was his son Samuel who, when under conviction of his sins in
consequence of the eloquent preaching at a revival, was heard, when on his
knees in a solitary hay-loft, to utter this unique prayer, "Oh, Lord!
they accuse Sam Morgan of doing this and that wicked thing, but, Oh Lord! it's
a d--d lie."

Hardy Morgan was the brother of Mark. His lands lay on Bowlin's Creek,
east of the village, now the property of Robert F. Strowd. The son, Samuel, who
inherited the home place is described as "one of nature's
noblemen," so free from guile as to lose nearly all his property by
becoming surety for Sheriff Nat King who fled to Tennessee after bankrupting
his friends. One of his slaves, Tom, having been bought by a trader who
designed to carry him to the Southwest for sale, ran away and for several years
had two hiding places, one a cave on Morgan's Creek and the other in a very
thick copse of wood near his old master's residence, under the lee of
overhanging rocks. Rough boards leaning against the rocks made a dismal shelter
from the rain. Under them was a shoemaker's bench and a pile of leaves for his
couch. He lived partly by robbery, partly by food brought by his mother, whose
cabin was near, but on the opposite side of the hill. There seemed to be little
desire to molest him until he began to break into the stores of the village in
search for meat. Then a posse was summoned for his capture. Marching through
the forest at regular intervals--a process known as "beating the
woods"--the men aroused him from his lair, and, on his refusal to
stop when commanded, he was shot in the legs, captured and then sent south for
sale. I have never seen the cave on Morgan's Creek but visited the den in the
woods the day after his capture. I remember the shoemaker's bench and the
fragments of leather, the scattered bones,

relics of his
solitary meals, and my young mind was shocked inexpressibly at the resemblance
of poor Tom's habitation to the lair of a wild beast.

It is gratifying to know that the old age of Samuel Morgan was relieved
by the acquisition of a competent livelihood in right of his wife. Allen, the
other son of Hardy Morgan, was dissipated and he and his descendants became
impoverished.

James Craig lived in the house still occupied by one of his descendants
in the extreme western part of the village. He was a quiet, reserved, good man,
so absent-minded that on one occasion he rode on horseback to New Hope church
and then walked home about seven miles, forgetting that he had a horse, saddled
and bridled, hitched near the church door. I heard President Andrew Johnson, in
a speech delivered from President Swain's front steps, tell how, when on his
way from Raleigh to seek his fortune in Tennessee, having walked from Raleigh,
28 miles, penniless and weary, he begged for a supper and a night's lodging at
James Craig's. With softened voice he spoke of the cordial hospitality with
which he was received, and how after abundant meals and a good night's rest he
was cheered on his lonely journey by kind words and a full supply of food in
his pockets.

For many years "Craigs," or "Fur (far) Craigs,"
as the place was called, to distinguish it from a Craig residence nearer the
village, was a favorite boarding house for those not adverse to long walks. Dr.
Hooper tells in his "Fifty Years Since" how ambitious
"spreads" of fried chicken and other dainties were served up to
parties of students, seeking a change from the monotony of the ancient Commons.
I remember that on one sad occasion a squad of unfortunates, among them one
destined to be an eminent Confederate general, whose hands bore the signs of
the presence of the dreaded sarcoptes
scabei, were quarantined at this remote spot in sulphurous
loneliness, under the sway of the terrible demon, "Old Scratch"

Two of James Craig's children lived to the advanced age of 84 or 85
years on the homestead. His son James graduated at the University in 1816 in
the class of John Y. Mason, Wm. Julius Alexander, and others. James Francis
Craig, his grandson,

a student of the University in 1852,
recently died on the old homestead. Another grandson, Wm. Harrison Craig, a
graduate of 1868, is a successful lawyer in Arkansas.

Alexander Piper was a plain farmer who removed to Fayette County,
Tennessee, many years ago.

Edmund Jones, a most valuable citizen in his county, was a soldier in
the Revolutionary War. Marrying Miss Rachel Alston he settled as a farmer near
Chapel Hill, but soon after the location of the University removed to Chatham
County and established himself on Ephraim's Creek, on the present line of the
Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad, midway between Siler City and Ore Hill.
He is buried about twelve feet from the road. He died in 1834 at the age of 85
years. He left three sons, two of whom resided in North Carolina, and the third
moved West. His descendants are scattered all over the South and Southwest. One
of his sons, Atlas Jones, was an alumnus, then a tutor of the University,
1804-'06, then a Trustee. He was a lawyer of prominence and a member of the
General Assembly from Moore County. A lawyer of much natural ability, but of
irregular habits, often in the Legislature from Anson, noted for his power of
discomforting opponents by humorous ridicule, Atlas Jones Dargan, was named
after him.

Thomas Connelly was once owner of the Matthew McCauley mill tract.
Seized by the fever for emigrating he removed to Georgia. He sold his Orange
County possessions and his name has disappeared from this neighborhood. He was
a Virginian and married Miss Mary Price, of Norfolk, in that State. He died at
the age of 82, leaving eleven sons and five daughters, most of them married.
His descendants are scattered from Georgia to Texas.

THE LAYING OF THE CORNERSTONE OF THE OLD EAST BUILDING.

The report of the Commissioners was referred to a committee consisting
of Davie, McCorckle, Jones, Ashe, and Sitgreaves. Jones, as chairman, reported
an ordinance ratifying their action, which was unanimously adopted. At a
previous

meeting a committee of which Senator Hawkins was
chairman, recommended the plan of a building 120 feet by 50, three stories
high, with a dining-room on the first floor 40 feet by 30, and a public hall on
the second and third floors of the same dimensions. This plan was for want of
means not approved, and on motion of Davie the location and construction of a
building sufficiently large to accommodate 50 students, and also the laying out
the village of Chapel Hill and selling lots therein, were directed to be
entrusted to seven commissioners, styled the Building Committee, to be elected
by ballot.

The following were chosen: Alfred Moore, W. R. Davie, Fred. Hargett,
Thomas H. Blount, Alexander Mebane, John Williams and John Haywood, certainly
worthy of full confidence.

The committee reported, through John Haywood, at their meeting in
Fayetteville in December, 1793. They had met in Hillsboro in April of that year
and contracted with George Daniel, of Orange County, for making 350,000 bricks
for 40 shillings ($4) per thousand. On the 10th of August following they
met at Chapel Hill, marked off sites for the buildings, "together with
the necessary quantity of land for offices, avenues and ornamental
grounds." They then laid off the village into lots. In addition to the
beauty and natural advantages of the place, they reported that it is
"happily accommodated to the introduction and direction of several
important public roads, which it is highly probable will in the future lead
through it." They found that a tract of eighty acres, belonging to Hardy
Morgan ran inconveniently near the buildings, and therefore bought it for
$200. On the 19th of July they contracted with James Patterson, of
Chatham County, for erecting a two-storied brick building, 96 feet 7 inches
long and 40 feet 1 1-2 inches wide, for $5,000, the University to
furnish the brick, sash weights, locks, hooks, fastenings and painting. The
building was to contain 16 rooms with four passages, and to be finished by the
1st of November, 1794. The cornerstone was laid on the 12th of October, 1793,
and on the same day the lots in the village, reserving a four-acre lot for a
residence for the President, were sold for £1.534 ($3,168),
payable in one and two years, good security being given. It was thought

that "the amount of the sales furnishes a pleasing
and undeniable proof of the high estimation in which the beautiful spot is
held." The report is signed by Davie, Moore, Mebane, Blount, and Haywood,
from which it is inferrible that Hargett and Williams did not act. The 80-acre
tract included the land east of the buildings next to the Raleigh road, which
is propably the oldest cleared land of the
University site. There are traces on it of a cottage, which was probably
tenanted at the time of the purchase.

The 12th of October was the date of many great events in the world's
history--of the discovery of America by Columbus, of the birth of that
grand evolution of Anglo-Norman-American character, Robert E. Lee, and of our
active, progressive, and able ex-President of the University, George Tayloe
Winston. In the year 1877 it was made a holiday, University Day. General Davie,
as Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Order of Masons, officiated, and Rev.
Dr. Samuel E. McCorckle delivered the address, on the occasion of the laying of
the corner-stone.

We have fortunately an account of the proceedings of this day so
memorable, written by Davie himself, the chief actor. I will endeavor to take
the veil from this picture of long ago, and wipe off the dust which obscures
it.

The Chapel Hill of 113 years ago was vastly different from the Chapel
Hill of to-day. It was covered with a primeval growth of forest trees, with
only one or two settlements and a few acres of clearing. Even the trees on the
East and West Avenue, named Cameron by the Faculty in recognition of the wise
and skillful superintendence by P. C. Cameron of the extensive repairs of our
buildings prior to the re-opening in 1875, were still erect. The sweetgums and
dogwoods and maples were relieving with their russet and golden hues the
general green of the forest. A long procession of people for the first time is
marching along the narrow road, afterwards to be widened into a noble avenue.
Many of them are clad in the striking, typical insignia of the Masonic
Fraternity, their Grand Master arrayed in the full decorations of his rank.
They march with military tread, because most of them have seen service, many
scarred with wounds of horrid war. Their faces are

serious, for they feel that they are engaged in a great work. They are
proceeding to lay the foundations of an institution which for weal or woe is to
shape the minds of thousands of unborn children; whose influence will be felt
more and more, ever widening and deepening as the years roll on, as one of the
great forces of civilization.

Let us transport ourselves in imagination and look on this strange
procession and see if we can recognize any of them as they step firmly in the
pleasant sunshine of the autumnal sun.

The tall, commanding figure most conspicuous in the Grand Master's
regalia is that of William Richardson Davie, whom I have heretofore described.
The distinguished looking man, "small in statue, neat in his dress,
elegant in his manner," next to Davie, is Davie's great rival, Alfred
Moore. Judge Murphey gives us a vivid picture of him also: "His voice was
clear and sonorous, his perception quick and judgment almost intuitive. His
style was chaste and manner of speaking animated. Having adopted Swift for his
model, his language was always plain. The clearness and energy of his mind
enabled him almost without an effort to disentangle the most intricate subject
and expose it in all its parts to the simplest understanding. He spoke with
ease and with force, enlivened his discourse with flashes of wit, and where the
subject required it with all the bitterness of sarcasm. His speeches were short
and impressive. When he sat down every one thought he had said everything he
ought to have said." His learning and acquirements secured for him a seat
on the bench of one of the most august tribunals in the world--the Supreme
Court of the United States.

In that procession appeared one too who had highest reputation among his
contemporaries as an enlightened lawyer, William H. Hill, heretofore described,
father of the brilliant young man whose death filled the whole State with
grief, Joseph A. Hill.

We next see one who was for many years the most popular man in North
Carolina, John Haywood. For forty years--1787 to 1827--he was
Treasurer of the State. His hospitality was unbounded. He made it a rule to
invite specially to an entertainment at his house at each session of the
General Assembly,

which then met annually, every member.
His kindness and charity were absolutely inexhaustible. In reading over the
University records I find that for over thirty years he scarcely missed a
meeting of the Board, whether held at Chapel Hill or Raleigh. His name is
perpetuated not only by the memory of his distinguished sons, but by one of our
loveliest mountain counties and by a neighboring town, which once aspired to be
the capital of the State and site of the University.

Marching with Haywood was Gen. Alexander Mebane, of the old Scotch-Irish
stock, who settled the Haw Fields in Alamance, something of whose history has
been given.

In that procession was also John Williams, founder of Williamsboro, in
Granville County, whose strong, sturdy sense enabled him to step with short
interval from the bench of the carpenter to the bench of the judge of the first
court under the Constitution of 1776. He was likewise a member of the Congress
of the Confederation.

Thomas Blount, member from Edgecombe, soon to enter Congress and to
become an attached colleague of Nathaniel Macon, was likewise present.

Prominent in this procession was the venerable Hargett, Senator from
Jones, plain, solid, but eminently trustworthy.

After these came other Trustees. Who they were, with the exception of
McCorkle, we have no record.

After the Trustees march State officers, not Trustees; among them Judge
Spruce McKoy, of Salisbury, and doubtless John Taylor, the first Steward of the
University, and the officers of the county; and then followed the gentlemen of
the vicinity, the donors of the land and their neighbors, and among them
Patterson, of Chatham, the contractor for the building. Since that day we have
had processions, year by year, on our Commencement days, and in their columns
men learned and distinguished in all the pursuits of life, but never has there
been a procession more imposing than that which laid the cornerstone of the Old
East, on the 12th day of October, 1793.

The orator of the day, Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, was one of the most noted
educators of that period. He was one of the sturdy Scotch-Irish, who made the
north of Ireland famous throughout all lands for triumphs of intelligent
industry and

thrift, whose glorious defence of Londonderry
stands unexcelled in the annals of human valor and endurance; who gave to North
Carolina many of its leaders in war and peace--Grahams and Jacksons,
Johnstons, Brevards, Alexanders, Mebanes and hosts of others, but above all
most of its faithful and zealous instructors of youth, such as Dr. Caldwell, of
Guilford, and Dr. Caldwell, of the University, Dr. Ker and Mr. Harris, its
first professors, and that progenitor of a line of able and cultured teachers
and founder of a school eminent for nearly a century for its widespread and
multiform usefulness, William Bingham, the first.

Dr. McCorkle was among the foremost of these. He was beyond his
generation as a teacher. His school at Thyatira, six miles west of Salisbury,
spread abroad not only classical learning but sound religious training. He
attached to it a department specially for teachers--the first normal
school, I feel sure, in America. The first class which graduated at our
University consisted of seven members; six of them had been pupils of Dr.
McCorkle. And it is gratifying that one of the first graduates of the revived
University was a relative of his, George McCorkle, of Catawba, the Chief
Marshal of 1876.

The name Zion-Parnassus, which he gave to his school at Thyatira, shows
how he combined the culture of the Bible and the culture of the Muses. The
first Board of Trustees of the University was composed of the greatest men of
the State, and among them--Senators, Governors, Judges of the Supreme
Court of the United States and of the State--was Dr. McCorkle, the
solitary preacher and solitary teacher. He was one of the best friends the
University had; worked for it, begged for it, preached for it. It was most
fitting that he should deliver the first address at the University, to be
followed by a long line of eloquent men.

We have a report of the address made by Dr. McCorkle on this momentous
occasion. It is replete with wisdom and noble thoughts, and proves that the
estimation placed on him by the men of his day was fully earned.

"Observing on the natural and necessary connection between
learning and religion, and the importance of religion to the

promotion of national happiness and national undertakings,
he said," "It is our duty to acknowledge that sacred scriptural
truth, except the Lord build the house they labor in vain who build it. Except
the Lord watcheth the city the watchman walketh but in vain." For my own
part I feel myself prostrated with a sense of these truths, and this I feel not
only as a minister of religion, but also as a citizen of the State--as a
member of the civil as well as the religious society."

After laying down the proposition that the happiness of mankind is
increased by the advancement of learning and science, the doctor observed,
"Happiness is the centre to which all the duties of man and people tend.
. . . To diffuse the greatest possible degree of happiness in a given territory
is the aim of good government and religion. Now the happiness of a nation
depends on national wealth and national glory and cannot be gained without
them. They in like manner depend on liberty and good laws. Liberty and laws
call for general knowledge in the people and extensive knowledge in matters of
the State, and these in turn demand public places of education. . . . How can
any nation be happy without national wealth? How can that nation or man be
happy that is not procuring and securing the necessary conveniences and
accommodations of life; ease without indolence and plenty without luxury or
waste? How can glory or wealth be procured without liberty and laws? They must
check luxury, encourage industry and protect wealth. They must secure me the
glory of my actions and save me from a bow-string or a bastille. And how are
these objects to be gained without general knowledge? Knowledge is
wealth--it is glory--whether among philosophers, ministers of State
or religion, or among the great mass of the people. Britons glory in the name
of Newton and have honored him with a place among the sepulchres of their
kings. Americans glory in the name of Franklin, and every nation boasts of her
great men, who has them. Savages cannot have, rather cannot educate them,
though many a Newton has been born and buried among them. Knowledge is liberty
and law. When the clouds of ignorance have been dispelled by the radiance of
knowledge power trembles, but the authority of the

laws
remain inviolable; and how this knowledge productive of so many advantages to
mankind can be acquired without public places of education I know
not."

The eyes of the orator kindled as he looked into the future. "The
seat of the University was next sought for," he said, "and the
public eye selected Chapel Hill--a lovely situation in the centre of the
State, at a convenient distance from the capital, in a healthy and fertile
neighborhood. May this hill be for religion as the ancient hill of Zion; and
for literature and the muses, may it surpass the ancient Parnassus! We this day
enjoy the pleasure of seeing the cornerstone of the University, its material
and the architect for the building, and we hope ere long to see its stately
walls and spire ascending to their summit. Ere long we hope to see it adorned
with an elegant village, accommodated with all the necessaries and conveniences
of civilized society."

"The discourse was followed by a short but animated prayer, closed
with the united amen of an immense concourse of people."

We thank thee for thy golden words, thou venerable father of education
in our State. On this foundation the University desires to rest, the
enlightenment of the people, their instruction not alone in secular learning
but in religious truth, leading up to and sustaining liberty by demanding and
shaping beneficent laws under which wealth may be accumulated and individual
happiness and national glory be secured, all sanctified by the blessings of
God; these are the objects, these are the methods, these are the good rewards
of the University.

But the beginnings of the University were in troublous times. Its
struggles were not only with want and penury, but with ignorance and prejudice
and a wild spirit of lawlessness.

All the world was in a ferment. The passions of the era flamed across
the ocean and enkindled sympathetic passions in our midst. Furious efforts were
made to force the United States into alliance with the French Republic. The
vision of the sister democracies of the Old World and the New, marching
shoulder to shoulder to plant in every capital the standard of universal
freedom, and conquering together a universal peace,

aroused every sentiment of romantic philanthropy and quixotic gratitude.

The rage of parties was strong in North Carolina, as elsewhere. It stood
in the way of all measures for the advancement of the public good. It
stimulated bad passions, prevented co-operation, divided the people into
hostile camps. In the general excitement the cause of education was little
regarded, and but for the wisdom of such men as Davie and Moore and Mebane and
Haywood and Hill the new-born University would have been strangled in its
infancy.

The population of the State was only about 400,000, of whom about
100,000 were slaves. The permanent seat of government had just been chosen. The
city of Raleigh was located in 1792, the State-house was not finished until
1794. The inhabitants of the State lived remote from one another, and mutual
intercourse was prevented not only by long distances but by the execrable roads
and the almost entire absence of spring vehicles. The two-wheeled sulky and
stick-back gig were possessed by the better class, while only a few of the
wealthiest could boast of the lumbering coach. Most traveling was on horseback,
it being quite the fashion for the lady to sit behind the gentleman and steady
herself by an arm around his waist.

The diffusion of intelligence through most of the regions of the State
was by the chance traveler or the wagoner. In 1790 there were only 75
post-offices in all the Union, now there are over 70,000. There were only 1,875
miles of post roads in all the Union, now there are over 400,000. Then there
was only one letter to 17 people, now there are over 20 letters to each person.
Then there were only 265,500 letters carried in a year; now there are largely
over 1,000,000,000. Then the postage was from seven to 33 cents, according to
distance; now for two cents a letter will go with great certainty to the shores
of the Pacific, even to distant Alaska among the frozen latitudes. In his
message to the Legislature of 1790 Governor Alexander Martin complained that
there is only one mail route in the State, and that runs only through the
seaboard towns; that only a few inhabitants derive advantage from that
establishment in comparison to the general bulk of the people of the interior
country.

Five years afterwards Prof. Harris, when a weekly
mail had been established, writes, "Our news at this place (Chapel Hill)
has given us more trouble and disappointment than information. I joined Mr.
Ker, acting president, in getting Browne's daily paper, but it has not arrived
by the two last posts, and if it does not come more regularly we must
discontinue it." The old records show that it was a common practice to
send a special messenger, called an "express," when important
communication became necessary between the University authorities and the
Trustees.

The state of education was at a low ebb. There were no public schools
and few private schools. I am fortunately able to give information on this
subject from Judge Archibald Murphey, an early student of the University; after
his graduation one of its professors. He says: "Before this University
came into operation in 1795 there were not more than three schools in the State
in which the rudiments of a classical education could be acquired. The most
prominent and useful of these schools was kept by Mr. David Caldwell, of
Guilford County. He initiated it shortly after the close of the war and
continued it for more than thirty years. The usefulness of Dr. Caldwell to the
literature of the State will never be sufficiently appreciated, but the
opportunities of instruction in the school were very limited. There was no
library attached to it. His students were supplied with a few of the Greek and
Latin classics, Euclid's Elements of Mathematics and Martin's Natural
Philosophy. Moral Philosophy was taught from a syllabus of lectures by Dr.
Witherspoon in Princeton College. The students had no books on history or
miscellaneous literature. There were very few indeed in the State, except in
the libraries of lawyers who lived in the commercial towns. I well remember
that after completing my course of studies under Dr. Caldwell, I spent nearly
two years without finding any books to read except old works on theological
subjects. At length I accidentally met with Voltaire's History of Charles XII.
of Sweden, and an odd volume of Smollett's Roderick Random and an abridgement
of Don Quixote. These books gave me a taste for reading which I had no
opportunity of gratifying

until I became a student of the
University in 1796. Few of Dr. Caldwell's students had better opportunities of
getting books than myself, and with those slender opportunities of instruction
it is not at all surprising that so few have become eminent in the liberal
professions. At this day (1827) when libraries are established in all our
towns, when every professional man and every respectable gentleman has a
collection of books, it is difficult to conceive the inconvenience under which
young men labored thirty or forty years ago." And yet there were men who,
like Judge Murphey, conquered all these difficulties and rose, conspicuous for
learning and science.

I am satisfied that Judge Murphey was mistaken as to the number of
classical schools. There were others, but very far from being sufficient to
supply the needs of the State.

The North American Review in 1821 said that,
"In an ardent and increasing zeal for the establishment of schools and
academies for several years past, we do not believe North Carolina has been
outdone by a single State. The academy at Raleigh was founded in 1804,
previously to which there were only two institutions of the kind in the State.
The number at present is nearly forty, and is rapidly increasing. Great pains
are taken to procure the best instructors from different parts of the country,
and we have the best authority for our opinion, that in no part of the Union
are the interests of education better understood and under better regulation
than in the middle counties of North Carolina. The schools for females are
particularly celebrated and are much resorted to from Georgia, South Carolina
and Virginia. In the year 1816 the number of students at academies within the
compass of forty miles amounted to more than one thousand."

Soon after the laying of the cornerstone of the Old East, the
President's dwelling was begun. This was located opposite to the present
Commons Hall, and is now occupied by Prof. Gore. It was the residence of
Professor Ker, then of Professor Gillaspie; then for some years of President
Caldwell. In the year 1807 he married the widow of William Hooper, son of the
signer of the Declaration of Independence, who had removed from Hillsboro to
Chapel Hill in order to educate her sons; he

then removed
to her residence at the southeast corner of Franklin and Hillsboro streets.
This caused the "President's house" to become the residence of
professors.

SALE OF VILLAGE LOTS.

After the ceremonies of laying the cornerstone, was had the sale of
villages lots. A careful inspection of the map of the town preserved among the
Harris papers and of the deeds given by the Commissioners of sale show clearly
the plan. A broad avenue, called the Grand Avenue, 290 feet wide, being the
distance between the eastern side of the East Building and the western side of
the West Building, was laid out on paper, extending from the north front of the
South Building northwardly to the limits of the University land, considerably
beyond the present village school-house. Person Hall (Old Chapel) was located
to front on this avenue.

Another avenue about 150 feet wide was designed to extend from the South
Building eastwardly to Piney Prospect. The lots on both sides of Franklin or
Main street, with the exception of those included in the Grand Avenue, were
squares of two acres each, as were also those along Columbia Avenue. These
two-acre lots were numbered 1 to 24; those west of Columbia Avenue, beginning
at the south, being numbers 1, 3, 5, 7; those on the east being 2, 4, 6, 8; the
two latter as well as 5 and 7 being on Franklin street. To the east of 6 on
Franklin street were the odd numbers 9 to 23, the spaces occupied by Grand
Avenue and Raleigh street not being included; that at the southeast corner of
Franklin and Raleigh streets being No. 19. Similarly on the north side of
Franklin street from No. 8, usually known as the Hargrave lot, to the east are
the even numbers 10 to 24; that known as the Thompson lot being No. 18.

Besides these there were five lots of four acres each, Nos. 1 and 2
being the lots from Commons Hall to the Pittsboro road. Nos. 3 and 4 being east
and west of Grand Avenue and north of Rosemary street, No. 5 being east of
Hillsboro street and north of Rosemary, and No. 6 being the Battle lot, touched
by no street, evidently set apart for sale because a spring was within its
limits.

The campus, then called ornamental grounds, was planned to be far larger
than at present. It was a square, extending eastwardly to the front line of No.
6 four-acre lot, and the same distance into the forest on the south, beyond the
old brickyard. The general changes in the plan have been the restricting of the
campus into its present stone-wall limits and the sale of that part of the
Grand Avenue which lies north of Franklin street. The first encroachment was a
Union church, called the village chapel, for holding religious services on
Sunday nights, on Franklin street about the middle of Grand Avenue, the
professors contributing the major part of the building fund. In the course of
time the lot on which it was situated was sold to the Presbyterians for their
church, and the lots to the west of it were disposed of for various purposes.
The old village chapel was moved northward and was recently the town
school-house. Another portion of Grand Avenue was bought by the Methodists as a
site for their church, and, when they concluded to build another, some northern
Congregationalists bought it for a school and church for the colored. It has
since been sold into private hands.

Long afterwards, about 1830, when Gerrard Hall was built, the
authorities of that day had a quixotic notion to force the University to turn
its back to the village and its face towards the south, a stately east and west
avenue to run from the Raleigh to the Pittsboro road. The southern porch of
Gerrard Hall, recently taken down, is a memento of this abortive project.

It is interesting to read the list of purchasers at the sale of 1793. I
regret that I have been unable to find the number of the lots each purchased,
but by the researches of Mr. S. M. Gattis I can give fair specimens. The last
descendant of an original purchaser who continued to hold the land bought was
Mrs. Mary Kenan, of Wilmington, wife of Wm. R. Kenan, whose mother, Mrs. Jesse
Hargrave, was a granddaughter of Christopher Barbee. She has recently sold it.
The following is the list of purchasers, the terms of sale being twelve months'
credit:

The Commissioners reported £30 more than this. The auctioneer was
John G. Rencher, and he was paid $20. John Daniel was the surveyor and
received $16.

The lot bid off by Alfred Moore, one of the Commissioners, for £32
($64) was transferred to William H. Hill, and by him to Thomas Taylor, a
merchant. After building a house on it and living therein for many years Taylor
removed to Tennessee, selling it to the University. It is the land east of the
Episcopal church extending to the Raleigh road, now occupied by Dr.
Alexander.

The Charles Collier lot ($134) is that at the corner of Hillsboro
and Franklin street, now owned by the heirs of Henry Thompson.

John Grant Rencher was the father of the late Abram Rencher, member of
Congress and Charge d' Affairs to Portugal. He bought No. 5 lot of four acres
for $74.50, No. 19, that

at the southeast corner of
Franklin and Raleigh streets, and that opposite for $77 each.

The four-acre Battle lot, No. 6, was purchased by Andrew Burke, a
merchant of Hillsboro, for $150. The highest priced were the two-acre
lots No. 11, where is now Roberson's Hotel, $142, or $71 per
acre, the purchaser being George Johnston; No. 12 opposite, on part of which is
the residence of the late Dr. W. P. Mallett, sold to Hardy Morgan for
$150, or $75 per acre; and No. 13 (the Chapel Hill Hotel lot) to
Edmund Jones for $200, or $100 per acre. The two-acre lot
adjoining the campus on the west, brought only $95, and that at the
southwest corner of Franklin street and Columbia Avenue, was sold to James
Paterson, the contractor for the East Building, for $122.

Nearly all of these purchases were for speculative purposes and it is
doubtful whether any money was made on the re-sales. Investors should take
warning by these figures of the danger of holding unimproved land in towns of
slow growth. Number 19 ($77), one of the most beautiful building sites
in the village, the house on which, burnt in 1886, was the residence of
Presidents Caldwell and Swain and which sheltered three Presidents of the
United States, Polk, Buchanan, and Johnson, is now worth exclusive of buildings
about $1,000. The $77 paid in 1793 at six per cent compound
interest would be over $12,000, and until 1848 moneys lent were not
taxed.

It is noticeable, as showing the progress of prices in real estate, that
the acre which is now the Presbyterian Manse, then without a building on it,
was in 1847 bought by Prof. W. M. Green, since Bishop of Mississippi, for
$37.50. In 1892 Prof. Collier Cobb gave for three-fourths of an acre
adjoining $300.

The first effort to start the University on its educational career was
peculiar and proved abortive. On the 12th of December. 1792, the Curriculum
Committee inserted an advertisement in the newspapers as follows:
"Proposals from such gentlemen as may intend to undertake the instruction
of youth" are invited, the instruction to embrace "Languages,
particularly the English: the Belles Lettres: Logic and Moral Philosophy;
Agriculture and Botany, with the principles of Architecture."

FIRST PLAN OF STUDIES AND BY-LAWS.

On December 4, 1792, at a meeting of the Trustees at New Bern, Messrs.
McCorckle, Stone, Moore, Ashe, and Hay were appointed a committee to report a
plan of education, and Hugh Williamson was afterwards added. Of these McCorkle,
Stone, Moore, and Ashe have already been described. Hay was an able lawyer from
Fayetteville, from whom Haymount is called, occasionally a member of the
General Assembly, a strong Federalist with a sharp tongue, which often
embroiled him with the Republican judges, Ashe, Spencer and Williams. His
beautiful daughter was the first wife of Judge Gaston. Dr. Hugh Williamson had
the reputation of having much varied learning, especially in the sciences. He
was a graduate of the Literary Department of the University of Pennsylvania,
was educated to be a Presbyterian preacher, but after serving two years left
the ministry on account of ill health. After being Professor of Mathematics in
his alma mater for a short while he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine
from the University of Edinburgh, and practiced his profession in Philadelphia.
Engaging in a coasting commercial venture at the opening of the Revolutionary
War, he was forced, in order to avoid capture, to run into Edenton, in North
Carolina, and there concluded to settle. When the militia was called out for
the unfortunate Camden campaign he volunteered his service as surgeon, and
remained in the hands of the British in order to care for the American wounded.
He was afterwards member of the North Carolina Legislature, member of the
Congress of Confederation and of the Convention of 1787, and a signer of the
United States Constitution. Marrying a lady of wealth living in New York, he
removed his residence to that city and there wrote his History of North
Carolina. He also published a volume on the climate of America as compared with
that of Europe, and was an active co-operator in advancing the interests of the
University of North Carolina until his death in 1819. Jefferson said of him
that he was a "very useful member of the Congress of the
Confederation." of "acute mind and of a high degree of

erudition." Of the committee the only college-bred
men were McCorkle, Stone and Williamson.

Dr. McCorkle, as Chairman, reported in December, 1792, in general terms
that, considering the poverty of the University, the instruction in literature
and science be confined to the study of the languages, particularly the
English, the acquirement of historical knowledge, ancient and modern; Belles
Lettres, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; Botany and the theory and practice
of Agriculture, best suited to the climate and soil of the State; the
principles of Architecture. The committee recommended the procurement of
apparatus for Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy. In this they included a
set of Globes, a Barometer, Thermometer, Microscope, Telescope, Quadrant,
Prismatic Glass, Air-pump, and an Electrical Machine. They were of the opinion
that a library be procured, but the choice should be deferred until additional
funds should be provided.

The report is remarkable as being far ahead of the times.
Notwithstanding that the chairman and the second on the list, Stone, were
graduates of Princeton, a seat of the old curriculum, viz.: the Classics,
Mathematics and Metaphysics, prominence is given to scientific studies and
those of a practical nature. It is strikingly like the plan adopted by Congress
for the establishment of the agricultural and mechanical colleges, in which, to
use the words of the act, "Without excluding the classics, and including
military tactics, shall be taught the branches of learning relating to
Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts." And I find that the course of
studies, from which the classics were excluded, was called by the name adopted
in 1870, the Scientific Course, although the Faculty adopting the latter had no
knowledge of the scheme of 1792.

It is certainly to the honor of Dr. McCorckle that, while he established
over a hundred years ago in the wilds of North Carolina a Normal School, the
first probably in America, he likewise drew up a scheme for the more practical
instruction which all institutions of higher learning at the present day have
to a greater or less extent adopted. It is probable, however, that as the
University of Pennsylvania, the alma mater of Dr. Hugh Williamson, was
conspicuous in exalting scientific studies, his

influence
had weight in the report of the committee. I find that Dr. John Andrews,
Provost of that institution, as late as 1810, writes that the principal
teachers of Latin and English are not styled professors, but masters--that
these schools were considered distinct from the college, subordinate to it and
only kept up as nurseries of the philosophical classes. He thought that on the
death or resignation of the Rev. Dr. Rogers, the head of the English school, it
would be abolished altogether.

On January 10, 1794, the Board ordered the scheme of the Committee to be
carried into effect, and that the exercises should begin on the 15th of
January, 1795. The annual Commencement was to be on the Monday after the 10th
of July each year, after which "there should be a time of recreation or
holiday of one month only." The next vacation was to begin on the 15th of
December and end on the 15th of January of each year.

The prices for tuition were as follows:

For Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Bookkeeping, $8 per
annum.

For Latin, Greek, French, English Grammar, Geography, History and Belles
Lettres, $12.50 per annum.

No President was to be chosen, but a Presiding Professor only, to occupy
the President's house and to be responsible for all the teaching. His style was
"Professor of Humanity," his salary $300 a year and
two-thirds of the tuition money.

The Professor of Humanity and three Trustees, or the President of the
Board, were authorized to employ assistance when needed. The salary of a tutor
was to be $200, one-third of the tuition money, free board at Commons,
and the use of a room in the "Old East." The word
"Humanity," more often in the plural form, "the
Humanities," was held to include grammar, logic, rhetoric, poetry and the
ancient classics, opposed to mathematics and the natural sciences.

Charles Wilson Harris, a recent graduate of Princeton, was chosen, in
the spring of 1795. Tutor of Mathematics.

ready at the opening of the institution, the size of the
edifice to be at the discretion of the Building Committee.

The students were to be allowed, but not compelled, to live in the
University building and board at Commons.

Absalom Tatom, of Hillsborough, who was afterwards a Commoner from that
borough and, by his criticism of the University as being aristocratical,
provoked violent denunciation by President Caldwell, and Walter Alves, of the
same town, the new Treasurer, were added to the Building Committee.

A committee, composed of John Haywood, Davie, James Taylor, Adlai
Osborne and Rev. Dr. McCorkle, reported that, as instructed, they had examined
into the financial condition of the institution. That, "on the 1st of
November, 1794, the institution would have in ready cash £6,297, 9s, 6d,
($12,594.95), exclusive of the hard money, which
by that time for interest will be three hundred dollars, or thereabout. This
interest was payable by the United States on bonds invested in the new debt
created for discharging the Revolutionary obligations of the General and State
governments.

The Committee, to report "the quantity and quality of the meats
and drinks to be furnished to students," was composed of Col. Wm. Lenoir,
David Stone, Joel Lane, Robert Porter and John Haywood. The diet recommended
seems sufficiently generous.

For Breakfast.--Coffee and tea, or chocolate and tea, one warm
roll, one loaf of wheat or corn flour (the secretary spells it flower), at the
option of the student, with a sufficiency of butter.

For Dinner.--A dish or cover of bacon and greens, or beef and
turnips, together with a sufficient quantity of fresh meats, or fowls, or
pudding and tarts, with a sufficiency of wheat and corn bread.

For Supper.--Coffee, tea, or milk at the option of the Steward,
with the necessary quantity of bread or biscuit.

The Committee adds that "it is expected Potatoes and all other
kinds of vegetable food will be furnished, and plentifully, by the
Steward," with a clean table cloth every other day. "They are of
opinion that no drink other than water be provided, the word
"drink" here meaning spirituous, vinous or malt fluids." The
report was adopted.

It is manifest that there is abundant room for differences between the
Steward and his hungry patrons. Neither the size, nor the weight of the rolls,
loaves, bacon, beef, is specified. As no fresh meats and fowls were required
when puddings and tarts were on hand, the first course, bacon with beans, or in
lieu thereof, beef and turnips, must have been a trifle lonesome. And if the
Steward, as he had the right to do, concluded to serve corn-bread, hot or cold,
without butter, even the advocate of Spartan simplicity might find it unsavory.
It must be noted too that the age and strength of the butter, which was not
imperative except at breakfast, might be a matter of serious wrangling. It
seems to have depended on the sympathetic temperament of the Steward whether
the expectation of the unlimited supply of vegetables was realized in all
seasons. Our history will show abundant heart-burnings resulting from the want
of more stringent provisions in the summary of that officer's duties.

In addition to furnishing food, the Board required the Steward to give
the floors, passages and staircases a fortnightly washing, to have the
students' rooms swept and beds made once a day, and to have brought from
"the spring" at least four times a day a sufficient quantity of
water in the judgment of the Faculty. The spring mentioned was near the
Episcopal Church rear wall, the head of the streamlet going through Battle
Park. It was then bold and pure. General Clingman informed me that it was used
as late as 1831.

The first Steward was John Taylor, usually called Buck Taylor. For his
services he was to receive $30 a year for each student. He was required
to enter into bond with good security in the sum of $400 for the
performance of his duty. An inspection of a copy of the bond shows that the
uncertainty in regard to the vegetables was partly removed by adding other
words, so as to read "potatoes and all kinds of vegetable food usually
served up in Carolina in sufficient quantities." The hours of meals were
for breakfast and dinner eight and one, and for supper "before or after
candle light, at the discretion of the faculty." The provision was added
that if milk should be served at supper, neither coffee, tea, nor chocolate
should be

required, "unless by boys who eat no
milk." Eating milk has an odd sound to our ear, but it must not be
understood that the lacteal fluid hardened into the likeness of cheese. In
1796, for some reason not explained, the requirement of milk was dispensed with
until after July 1st, while wheat bread and biscuit might be lacking until the
same date. The house of the Steward stood for fifty years at the crown of the
hill east of Smith Hall, in the middle of Cameron Avenue--a two-storied
wooden building painted white. Taylor held the contract until he gave place to
Major Pleasant Henderson, a Revolutionary soldier, uncle of Chief Justice
Leonard Henderson.

John Taylor was a fine specimen of the bold, frank, rough, honest,
Revolutionary veteran, a good citizen, but perhaps too ready to assert his
rights and resent injuries by first law. He owned a plantation three miles west
of Chapel Hill, now called the Snipes place. When he came to his death-bed he
requested to be buried on the summit of a woody hill overlooking the cultivated
fields, so that he could watch the negroes and keep them at their work. The
monument is a sandstone slab, and on it, "To the Memory of John Taylor.
Born June 22, 1747; died May 28, 1828. A Patriot of 1776."

At this meeting General Davie was requested to prepare a book-plate for
the University books. It will be noticed that his Revolutionary title of
Colonel is dropped for that of a higher rank, which of course was in the
militia. There is a tradition that when he was afterwards a special
Commissioner to France, Napoleon, although generally treating him with marked
consideration, showed disgust when he learned that the title was not gained on
the gory battlefield.

The Trustees placed in the hands of Hugh Williamson $200, to be
used in the purchase of "such Grammar, Classical and other books as in
his opinion will be first needed," and the Professor of Humanity was
directed to sell them to the students at cost. It is interesting to note the
titles of some of these books and their prices:

48 Ruddiman's Rudiments

each $0.28

24 Whittenhall's Greek Grammar

each .37½

48 Webster's Grammar

each .33 1-3

6 Scot's Dictionary

each 1.00

36 Corderii

each .28

24 Erasmus

each .47

2 Clark's Nepos

each 1.33

10 Sallust

each .87½

6 Cicero Delphini

each 2.00

6 Virgil Delphini

each 2.25

6 Horace Delphini

each 2.25

6 Young's Dictionary

each 2.25

6 Schrevelius' Lexicon

each .25

6 Greek Testaments

each 1.67

4 Lucian

each .90

3 Xenophon

each 2.50

6 Nicholson's Philosophy (Natural)

each 2.67

4 Homer

each 3.75

6 Epictetus

each .31

It will be observed that Dr. Williamson rightly estimated the paucity of
numbers likely to be in the higher Greek classes. The prices also point to the
general slender demand for both Latin and Greek: $2.50 for Xenophon,
$3.75 for Homer, $2.25 for Cicero, Virgil, and Horace would
distress the average student even in our day. Money was much more difficult of
attainment then than now.

The by-laws of the University were written at first by Dr. McCorkle,
then referred to a committee, amended and adopted finally on the 6th of
February, 1795. The following is a faithful summary.

The duties of the President, or Presiding Professor, were to superintend
all studies, particularly those of the Senior class, provide for the
performance of the morning and evening prayer, to examine each student on every
Sunday evening on questions previously given them on the general principles of
morality and

religion; to deliver weekly lectures on the
Principles of Agriculture, Botany, Zoology, Mineralogy, Architecture and
Commerce; report annually at least to the Trustees on the state of the
University, with such recommendations as he saw fit to suggest.

The officers of the University collectively were called the Faculty,
with power to inflict the punishments prescribed by the Trustees, and to make
temporary regulations when the Board was not in session.

No officer to be removed without a fair hearing.

Four literary classes were prescribed, called First, Second, Third, and
Fourth.

The studies of the First Class were English Grammar, Roman Antiquities,
and such parts of the Roman historians, orators and poets as the professors
might designate, and also the Greek Testament.

The Second Class to study Arithmetic, Bookkeeping, Geography, including
the use of globes, Grecian antiquity and Greek classics.

The exercises of the Third Class to be the Mathematics, including
Geometry, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy.

The Fourth Class to study Logic, Moral Philosophy, Principles of Civil
Government, Chronology, History, Ancient and Modern, the Belles Lettres,
"and the revisal of whatsoever may appear necessary to the officers of
the University."

It was provided that if any studies should not be finished in one year,
they should be completed in the next. E converso, if
those assigned to one year should be finished before the end of the session,
those of the next should be anticipated.

For admission into the First, i. e., the lowest
class, successful examinations should be had on Cæsar's Commentaries,
Sallust, Ovid or Virgil and the Greek Grammar. Equivalent Latin works were
accepted.

Those electing to study the Sciences and the English language to be
formed into a Scientific class, or pursue the chosen subjects with the Literary
classes.

Those entering the Third class at, or after, the middle stage of its
progress, should pay eight dollars; those entering the Fourth in its first
half, $12.50; in the second half, $15.00.

Attendance on prayers twice a day was required, and morning prayer was
at sunrise.

From morning prayer to breakfast was to be study hour. One hour was
allowed for breakfast and amusement, after which three hours were devoted to
study and recitation, i. e., until 12 o'clock.

Study hours began again at 2 o'clock p. m. and continued until prayers
at 5 o'clock, after which was a "vacation" until 8 p. m.,
"when the students shall return to their lodgings and not leave them
until prayers the next morning."

Each class to have one of its members a monitor to report those absent
without leave, and also the disorderly and vicious.

Students all to speak, read and exhibit compositions on Saturday
mornings. Saturday afternoons were allowed for amusements.

All were required to attend divine service on the Sabbath. In the
afternoon they were examined on the general principles of religion and
morality. They were enjoined to reverence the Sabbath, to use no profane
language, not to speak disrespectfully of religion or of any religious
denomination. Keeping ardent spirits in their rooms, association with evil
company, playing at any game of hazard, or other kind of gaming and betting,
were prohibited. They must treat their teachers with respect. And an
aristocratic principle was introduced when it was further ordered that they
treat "each other according to the honor due each class." A general
injunction to observe the rules of decency and cleanliness was prescribed.

A fee of $5.00 per term, payable half yearly in advance, was
exacted for room rent and repairs of accidental damages. One causing wilful
damage must pay four-fold. If the mischief-maker was unknown, the real damage
was assessed on all the students. Payment of dues was necessary to obtaining
degrees.

The students were required to cleanse their beds and rooms of bugs every
two weeks.

To ensure understanding of the rules it was ordered that the students
copy them in note books.

With regard to punishment the by-laws were framed with conscious
recognition of the fact that University life is separate and apart from that of
the State. A "Declaration of Rights" was prefixed. "The
students charged shall have timely notice and testimony taken on the most
solemn assurance shall be deemed valid without calling on a magistrate to
administer an oath in legal form."

The grades of punishment were:

1. Admonition by any University officer, or by the Faculty.

2. Admonition before the whole University.

3. Admonition before the Trustees.

4. Suspension.

5. Total and final expulsion.

It was gravely provided that no pecuniary mulcts should be inflicted for
non-attendance on prayers or recitations, but in addition to admonition, an
abstract of the report of the monitors of such absence must be sent to the
offender's parent or guardian.

The "monitors' bills," or reports, were to be read publicly
every Monday evening, and offenders "brought to account."

The laws were to be publicly read once a year, and an address delivered
on the advantage and necessity of observing the laws. This address was to be
either by a member of the Faculty, or by a student appointed for the
purpose.

A hundred years' experience discloses a marked change not only in words,
but in the spirit of the University laws.

In the administration of the criminal law a regular trial of offenders
was originally contemplated. Witnesses were called for and against the accused,
their solemn affirmation being taken as an oath. In practice it was found of
course that students could not be compelled to inform on one another. Now the
practice is to have no witnesses at all. The executive officer satisfies
himself that there is strong presumption of guilt, so strong, that if the
accused refuses to answer, this refusal is to be considered as confession. If
the accused positively affirms certain facts, they are, as a rule, accepted
without calling any witnesses. His denial, unless inconsistent with known
facts, is admitted to be true. It is not a criminal trial at all, but the

accused is allowed to exculpate himself from suspicion, so
grave, that without such exculpation, guilt is conclusively presumed. The
executive officer never arraigns a supposed offender on a mere suspicion or
guess, with the intention of calling up one after another until the offender is
discovered. This would ruin his authority and would justify students in
refusing to answer, because obviously the plan would be equivalent to making
students indirectly inform on one another. After much disturbance and many
clashes this is the final outcome--the evolution of University trials. It
is more satisfactory than any preceding method. A practice of many years has
shown not one serious mistake on the part of the executive officer, and
extremely rare cases of deception on the part of the accused. In these the
scorn of their fellows was sufficient punishment.

It is occasionally urged that the Faculty should invoke the power of the
courts for punishment of student offenders. It has been done once at least, and
threatened oftener in old times, but it seems to be against principle. The
Faculty stand in loco parentis, and ought except in
extreme cases rather to employ counsel to defend their children "in
law" than prosecute them.

The evolution of punishments is interesting.

Up to a recent period admonition before the Faculty was practiced
freely. Experience has shown that this created irritation without effecting
reformation, and it has been discontinued. The President takes the duty.

Admonition before the whole University has been long ago abandoned as
mischievous and useless. The same may be said of admonition before the
Trustees. Suspension for from two weeks to six months was practiced until 1868.
Obviously this punishment was very injurious to the scholarship of the student.
It was not dreaded to a great extent by those who were not in awe of parents.
Often the offenders engaged board a few miles from Chapel Hill and had a jolly
time "rusticating," reading novels, hunting or fishing. Sometimes
they plunged into the dissipations of neighboring towns. So the "total
and final expulsion" was divided into "dismission," and
"expulsion," the latter being only inflicted in cases of flagrant
enormity.

For offenses for which formerly suspension for a
definite term was inflicted, the punishment is now dismission from the
University without report to the Trustees. It then rests entirely with the
Faculty whether the offender shall be allowed to return, and if so, when and on
what conditions. If the offence is an atrocious one the case is reported to the
Trustees and, in addition to dismission, expulsion is recommended. If the
Trustees concur, on no terms can there be re-admission. A milder form of
dismission is a notification to the offender that he must withdraw, or a
request to the parents to order him home. This allows easier admission to other
institutions. Sometimes offences are overlooked in consideration of pledges to
refrain from the particular misconduct. General pledges of good conduct, once a
favorite with the Faculty, are now not required, as being a snare for the
thoughtless.

If it should become absolutely necessary, the Presiding Professor, with
the advice of three Trustees, could employ a teacher of reading, writing,
arithmetic, and bookkeeping.

The Trustees had a high conception of the office of President. Before
going into the election of the Professor of Humanity, it was ordered that
neither he nor any assistant shall have "any manner of claim, right or
preference whatever to the Presidency of the University, nor to such
employments as it may hereafter be thought advisable to fill, but they shall be
considered as standing in the same situation as though they had received no
appointment from the Board."

ELECTION OF PRESIDING PROFESSOR.

The election was by ballot on the 10th of January, 1794. It does not
appear that there were any applicants, but the following were placed in
nomination: Rev. John Brown, who had been a pupil of Dr. McCorkle, pastor of
Waxhaw Church, afterwards a Professor in the University of South Carolina, and
President of that of Georgia; Rev. Robert Archibald, a graduate of Princeton,
pastor of Rocky River Church, afterwards embracing the doctrine of universal
salvation, but it did not save him from being dropped from the Presbyterian
roll; Rev. James Tate, an excellent Presbyterian divine from New Hanover; Rev.
George Micklejohn, generally called Parson

Micklejohn, who
had been a minister of the Church of England in Colonial times, having under
his jurisdiction, besides many others, the New Hope Chapel. He was a Tory and
was forced to change his residence to the Albemarle country for fear of his
influence over the Regulators. He was a rough, honest gentleman of the old
Scotch school, according to tradition, who would hire a man to attend his
services by the bribe of a generous drink out of his bottle of brandy. Many
surmised that the choice would fall on Dr. McCorkle, a Trustee, who delivered
the address at the laying of the corner-stone of the Old East; but, while his
learning was conceded, Davie distrusted his executive ability. A story of
McCorkle as a farmer shows that this distrust was well founded. He was used to
carry into the field volumes on theological subjects for his diversion in
intervals of manual labor. A neighbor seeking him on business found him
stretched sub tegmine
querci, deep in his studies, while his negro plowman was fast
asleep under another tree, and the mule was cropping the grateful
corn-tops.

In a letter of Davie's, written at a later period, is the suggestion of
another objection to Dr. McCorkle, by reason of a distrust of the wisdom of all
preachers. Speaking of some criticisms of the University, he wrote,
"Bishop Pettigrew has said it is a very dissipated and debauched place.
Some priests have also been doing us the same good office to the westward.
Nothing, it seems, goes well that these men of God (the
italics are his) have not some hand in." Dr. McCorkle must have been
included in this sneer. Davie, in truth, had imbibed some of the skepticism
then so prevalent among the educated classes.

Although he was not chosen, the good Doctor had no resentment against
the University. This is proved by his collection of a subscription from his
congregation at Thyatira for the use of the University, the only instance of
congregational help given in the early days. Whether a business man or not he
was possessed in a large measure of piety and force. Born August 23, 1746, in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, he was brought to North Carolina when nine
years of age to a farm fifteen miles west of Salisbury. He was a bright student
at the school of Dr. David Caldwell, graduated at Princeton in 1772 in the
class of Aaron Burr, whose father of the same name

was President of the College. After his
ordination as a minister of the Presbyterian Church he was for awhile a
missionary in the counties of Hanover and Orange in Virginia. He then settled
at Thyatira, near his father's homestead in Rowan County, in North Carolina,
and connected himself with the Presbytery of Orange. In 1785 he established his
school. His person is described as tall and manly, his delivery in the pulpit
grave and solemn, his language impressive and thrilling. He lived until January
21, 1811, on his death-bed dictating minute directions as to his funeral. His
wife was Elizabeth, daughter of William Steele, a sister of General John
Steele, a prominent Congressman of his day.

Of Andrew Martin, also nominated, I have been able to learn nothing.
Possibly he was a relative of the Governor.

Over these nominees Rev. David Ker, thirty-six years old, born in North
Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, a recent immigrant,
Presbyterian pastor in Fayetteville, adding to his small salary by conducting
the high school in the town, was chosen to inaugurate the new institution.

In order to be ready for the opening on the 15th of January, 1795, the
work on the East Building and the President's house was ordered to be pushed.
The contractor was Samuel Hopkins, as Martin Hall was the builder of Steward
Hall, and Phileman Hodges of the Old Chapel, or Person Hall. It may be of
interest to some that George Daniel made 150,000 bricks for $266.67 at
one time and at another for $333.30. In the same year John Hogan
received $400 for the same work. The clay and the fuel for burning were
from the University lands. It certainly shows a striking difference between old
ways and new that the lime for mortar was obtained from shells brought up the
Cape Fear to Fayetteville and thence hauled by wagons to be burned in Chapel
Hill. Now, instead of from the ocean which breaks upon our coast, we get our
lime from the far-distant State of Maine.

THE OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY, JANUARY 15, 1795.

The opening of the University on the memorable January 15, 1795, gave no
prophecy of the swarms of students annually appearing at the openings of our
day. The winter was severe and

the roads almost
impassable. Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight, whose energy and devotion to duty
had been shown when, as a student of twenty, he hastened to sail for America,
ran the hazard of being captured by British vessels in order to throw in his
fortunes with his native State, had braved the discomforts of twenty-eight
miles of red mud and pipe clay and jagged rocks stretching from Chapel Hill to
Raleigh. It is recorded that he had attendants, and we can assuredly guess that
among them were State Treasurer John Haywood, and John Craven, the Comptroller,
the first University Treasurer. The gazette of the period, the
North Carolina Journal, merely states that there were
present "several members of the corporation and many other gentlemen,
members of the General Assembly," then in session. We may almost
certainly see in attendance the members from Hillsborough and Orange, Samuel
Benton, father of the great Senator, "Old Bullion," Thomas Hart
Benton; Walter Alves, son of James Hogg; and William Lytle, son of Colonel
Archibald Lytle who fought so bravely under Sumner at Eutaw; also William Cain,
the Senator from Orange, whose liberality to the institution has been
mentioned; William Person Little, Senator from Granville, and Thomas Person,
Commoner, both nephews of the University's benefactor, detained at home by the
infirmities of age; John Baptist Ashe, Commoner from Halifax, afterwards
elected Governor but dying before taking his seat, in place of General Davie
then employed on official duty elsewhere. Of course the ever-active Joel Lane,
Senator from Wake, who offered broad acres to secure the University at Cary,
was on hand. And it is reasonably certain, judging from the interest they took
in the new institution, that John Macon, Senator from Warren, Daniel Gillespie,
Senator from Guilford, whose son was afterwards Presiding Professor; and the
brilliant young Commoner from Fayetteville, afterwards the first Chief Justice
of our Supreme Court, John Louis Taylor, were willing to add eclat to the
occasion by their presence. Of course in attendance were Alexander Mebane, the
Congressman, and James Hogg, the rich merchant, Trustees, Commissioners to
select the site, and members of the Building Committee.

The morning of the 15th of January opened with a cold, drizzling rain.
As the sighing of the watery wind whistled through the leafless branches of
tall oaks and hickories and the Davie poplar then in vigorous youth, all that
met the eyes of the distinguished visitors were a two-storied brick building,
the unpainted wooden house of the Presiding Professor, the avenue between them
filled with stumps of recently felled trees, a pile of yellowish red clay, dug
out for the foundation of the Chapel, or Person Hall, a pile of lumber
collected for building Steward's Hall, a Scotch-Irish preacher-professor, in
whose mind were fermenting ideas of infidelity, destined soon to cost him his
place, and not one student.

The proverbial optimism of the press as to matters hoped for did not
fail the ancestor of our modern newspapers. The editor of the
Journal kindly comments: "The Governor, with the
Trustees who accompanied him, viewed the buildings and made report to the
Board, by which they are enabled to inform the public that the buildings
prepared for the reception and accommodation of students are in part finished,
and that youth disposed to enter the University may come forward with the
assurance of being received." The editor goes on to state the terms of
tuition and board in apparently naive unconsciousness that he was giving the
University a first-class advertisement. When I state that this important item
appears in the issue of February 23d, forty-nine days after the event, we must
give the palm for furnishing news more promptly, if not more reliably, to the
modern reporter.

The learned Presiding Professor, Dr. David Ker, reigned in his solitary
greatness for the greater part of the period of revolution of the wintry moon.
It was not until the 12th of February that the first student arrived, with no
companion, all the way from the banks of the lower Cape Fear, the precursor of
a long line of seekers after knowledge. His residence was Wilmington, his name
Hinton James.

For two weeks, in his loneliness, he constituted the entire student body
of the University, with no Sophomores saluting his ears with diabolical yells,
nor teaching him to keep step to the rhythm of whistling music. For two weeks
he was the first-honor man of his class.

It was of good omen that this first-fruit of the University was worthy
to head the list of her students. The Faculty records show that he performed
his duties faithfully and with ability. For several years the students were
required to read original compositions on Saturdays, and those deemed
especially meritorious were posted in a record book. The name of Hinton James
occurs often on this Roll of Honor. His taste took a scientific and practical
direction. One of his subjects was "The Uses of the Sun," another
"The Motions of the Earth," a third "The Commerce of
Britain," a fourth "The Slave Trade," a fifth "The
Pleasures of College Life," and a sixth the "Effects of Climate on
the Minds and Bodies of Men."

After leaving the University, James became a civil engineer of
usefulness in his section of the State, as an assistant to Chief Engineer
Fulton, who was brought from Scotland at a salary of $6,000 a year
payable in gold, to improve the navigation of our rivers. In passing from
Wilmington down the beautiful Cape Fear, I was shown by my intelligent friend,
the late Henry Nutt, some of James' works for deepening the channel, which had
withstood the floods and tides of sixty years. He was likewise called into the
service of his country as a legislator for three terms, beginning with 1807,
for two of them being the colleague of a lawyer of great reputation in the old
days, William Watts Jones.

The next arrivals were, a fortnight later, Maurice and Alfred Moore of
Brunswick, and their cousin, Richard Eagles, of New Hanover; John Taylor of
Orange, and from Granville William M. Sneed, and three sons of Robert H.
Burton, the Treasurer of the University, namely, Hutchins G., Francis and
Robert H. Burton, Junior. It is pleasant to record that all of these turned out
to be good men. The two Moores were sons of Judge Alfred Moore. Maurice served
Brunswick County in the General Assembly and then became a planter in
Lousiana. He it was who had the misfortune to shoot
Governor Benjamin Smith in a duel. Alfred Moore, whose bust may be seen in
Gerrard Hall, was a cultivated and popular man, reaching the dignity, once
considered as nearly equal to that of Governor, of the Speakership of the House
of Commons. He would have gone higher, if he had not lacked ambition. His name
and

talents have descended to his scholarly grandson,
Alfred Moore Waddell. The father of Richard Eagles gave the name to Eagles
Island, opposite Wilmington. The son, like the father, was a man of wealth and
high standing in a cultivated community. John Taylor, son of the first steward
of the University, was for many years Clerk of the Superior Court of Orange and
was the grandfather of our big-brained mathematician--the late Ralph H.
Graves. Of the Granville men, William Morgan Sneed was seven times State
Senator and twice Commoner. Of the three Burtons, Hutchins G. was thrice
elected Governor of the State, after being a Congressman. Francis Nash Williams
Burton was a lawyer of large practice in Lincoln and the adjoining counties,
while Robert, his partner, was at one time Judge of the Superior Court. A
daughter of Judge Burton married the eminent lawyer, Michael Hoke, and was the
mother of one of General Lee's best Major-Generals, Robert F. Hoke, and
grandmother of Secretary Hoke Smith. I give these particulars in order to show
that the University made a good start on its grand career. Its earliest sons
were leaders in good works.

The numbers reached forty-one by the end of the term. During the second
term they rose to nearly one hundred, but such was the dearth of good schools
in the State that at least one-half of them were unprepared to enter the
University classes.

It became necessary to inaugurate a Preparatory Department, or
"Grammar School," for the benefit of these juveniles, many of them
belonging to the "small-boy" genus. The profession of teachers was
then, and years afterward, at such a low ebb that obtaining competent
professors was a most troublesome problem.

Among the earliest students besides those I have named we find men
afterwards notable for good works: such, for example, as Ebenezer Pettigrew, a
member of Congress, father of General J. Johnston Pettigrew, a still more
eminent son of the University; Thomas D. Bennehan, famed for bounteous
hospitality, long a Trustee of the institution, which his father, Richard
Bennehan, assisted in its young days; James Mebane, Speaker of the House of
Commons, father of another University gradute

HARRIS ELECTED.

The increase in numbers led to the election of a Tutor of Mathematics,
in the sphing of 1795. The choice fell on Charles
Wilson Harris, a recent first-honor graduate of Princeton, nephew of Dr.
Charles Harris, a noted physician of his day, who taught at his home probably
the first medical school in the State. Young Harris had a strong mind, elegant
literary tastes, courtly manners, and weight of character. These two, Ker and
Harris, sustained the burdens of instruction and discipline during the first
year of University life, and sustained it with conspicuous
fathfulness and ability. It was a great
misfortune that Ker the next year went off into infidelity and wild democracy,
thus raising up two sets of enemies in the Board of Trustees, Christians and
Federalists, so that he deemed it prudent after eighteen months to resign his
charge.

For the first year and a half, however, these two, Ker and Harris, had
the difficult and unpleasant task of classifying and instructing the
unorganized mass of all ages from mature young men to mere boys, some with a
smattering of algebra and the classics, others innocent even of arithmetic and
grammar.

We have no letters of Dr. Ker written from Chapel Hill, but by the
kindness of William Shakespeare Harris and other relatives this want is
abundantly supplied by those of his associate. Charles W. Harris was an elegant
writer. His style is free from ostentation, his ideas are clearly and strongly
expressed, his penmanship is good, and his spelling in advance of his age as a
rule. It is strange, however, that he gives to Chapel in Chapel Hill two p's
instead of one.

On the 10th of April Harris writes to his uncle, Dr. Charles Harris:
"We have begun to introduce by degrees the regulations of the University
and as yet have not been disappointed. There is one class in Natural Philosophy
and four in the languages." He continues, "The constitution of this
college is on a more liberal plan than that of any other in America, and by the
amendment, which I think it will receive at the next meeting of the Trustees,
its usefulness will probably be much promoted.

The notion
that true learning consists rather in exercising the reasoning faculties and
laying up a store of useful knowledge, than in overloading the memory with
words of dead languages, is daily becoming more prevalent." He then
enters upon praises of Miss Wollstonecraft's book on the "Rights of
Women," as containing the true principles of education, and states that
though the laws at present require that Latin and Greek be understood by a
graduate, they will in all probability be mitigated in their effect.

He was of a social nature, and deplored the lack of congenial society.
"My only resort," he wrote, "is to Mr. Ker, who makes ample
amends to me for the want of any other. He is a violent republican and is
continually deprecating the aristocical
principles which have lately prevailed much in our executive." We can see
that Harris' political faith was swerved by this well-educated, able and
experienced middle-aged clerical politician, for he sneers at some strong words
of praise of Washington by one Rev. Stanhope Smith, saying that "tho' he
be the greatest man in America the encomium smells strong of British
seasoning."

He rejoiced that the Trustees resolved to inaugurate a museum and took
active steps to procure for it specimens.

Although the articles given have been lost, the names of the donors
should be remembered and the objects given recorded. The context shows that
some of the specimens were given three years later.

"Honorable Judge Williams," An Ostrich egg.

Mrs. Allen Jones, Halifax, Pieces of Cloth made of bark brought from
Otaheite by Capt. Cooke. The tooth of a young mammoth from the banks of the
Ohio.

Frank Burton, Granville, A sea leaf. A viol containing a reel.

Col. Adlai Osborne, Centre, A piece of Asbestos. A pine limb and a piece
of resin petrified.

As Harris had read some medical books while living with Dr. Harris, and,
as there was no physician nearer to Chapel Hill than Hillsboro, he charitably
kept a small stock of medicine for the students and the neighborhood, to be
sold at cost. He sent a plot of the University lands,
well drawn, with a broad avenue leading N. 69 E. from the contemplated Main
(now South) Building to "point-prospect" (now Piney Prospect). The
campus then contained 98¾ acres; about twice as large as the present
campus. His opinion of the suitableness of the locality for its purpose,
accords with Davie's--"Most happily situated; a delightful prospect,
charming groves, medicinal springs, light and wholesome air, and inaccessible
to vice." "This last enconium by Mr.
Charles Pettigrew, the Bishop-elect from Edenton, added when he visited
us." The inaccessibility to vice was a pleasing delusion, as the good Dr.
Pettigrew found on a subsequent visit. Two years afterwards he writes to
Caldwell of his dread lest his sons, John and Ebenezer, may have "all
fear of the Almighty eradicated from their minds by the habitual use of oaths
and imprecations, which report says, and which my own ears have informed me,
are too common impletives
*

* This word is not in Webster.

in the conversation of the
students." Those conversant with the social history of the times know
well that the students used no worse language than was common in all social
gatherings of men.

Harriss expressed much concern about the
education of his younger brother, Robert. "He is growing fast and
receiving none of those improvements which he ought. I could not prevail with
my father to let him come to this place.--It can scarcely be pecuniary
want that hinders his complying with my request. Nor can it be I hope any
distrust of my principles, as I have heard suggested. He and I have been very
free in speaking on tenets, and I never observed any great degree of
disapprobation. If the latter be the cause I have no more to say."

There is only one other allusion in all his letters to the deviation of
his faith from that of his Presbyterian forefathers. That looked only to the
denial of the doctrine of the Trinity

as usually
understood, not by any means atheism, or denials of other truths of
Christianity. If his apostasy had been rank, his Ruling Elder father would have
regarded it not only with disapprobation, but horror. Nor would that father
have placed his peculiarly beloved son, as within a few weeks he did, under the
charge of an infidel elder brother, all the more dangerous because of his
winning manners, strong mind and wide and varied reading. I think it is clear
that Charles Harris' unbelief would in our day be regarded as not more
heterodox than that preached by Dr. C. H. Briggs, Dr. Wm. Robertson Smith and
other able divines, who have a large following in their respective churches,
although regarded by the majority as lacking the true faith. In other words, he
was like those called among Episcopalians, "Broad Churchmen." It
must be remembered that a hundred years ago there was much greater intolerance
of differences of opinion than now.

The first public examination was held on the 13th of July, 1795, the
first of the long series of Commencements, which have produced more eloquence,
brought together more distinguished men and beautiful women, provided a more
abundant supply of unadulterated fun, and married off more congenial couples
than any other similar occasion, in the land. Previous notice was given in the
newspapers, over the signature of the Governor, Richard Dobbs Spaight. In an
enthusiastic editorial in the North Carolina Journal,
it was stated that the "young gentlemen" had submitted with a
degree of cheerfulness and promptitude to the regulations of the University,
which does them the greatest honor.--The Commons have exceeded the
expectations both of students and of strangers. The spirit of improvement,
order and harmony, which reigns in this little community, emulously engaged in
the noble work of cultivating the human mind, is most commendable." The
editor at the same time gives glowing praises of the Academies of Thyatira,
under Dr. McCorkle, the Warrenton, under Rev. Marcus George, the Chatham under
Rev. Wm. Bingham, and the New Bern, under Dr. T. P. Irving, as capable of
furnishing students to the University.

but the deficiency is partly supplied by a letter from
Hinton James, heretofore mentioned, written when he was about sixty years old.
The public interest had not been aroused sufficiently to ensure a large
attendance of visitors. Only one lady graced the occasion, the wife of the
Governor, the first of the long procession of the thousands of the brightest
and best of the womanhood of the land,--Mary (Leach) Spaight, well
remembered as one of the most handsome and attractive of her sex.

There were only about a dozen of the gentlemen of the State, the leaders
of the hosts of the friends of higher education. Among them were "the
University Father," General Davie, and the Secretary of State, James
Glasgow, whose frauds in his office had not been discovered; the merchant,
James Hogg, and the eminent Attorney-General and Judge, Alfred Moore, the
elder. These Trustees attended in pursuance of an ordinance of the Board that
at every examination it should be the duty of one Trustee from each judicial
district in alphabetical order to visit the classes and report the result of
their inspection to the Board. As might have been expected, the attendance of
the Trustees, at all times spasmodic, soon ceased altogether.

It must have been an occasion of a staid and dignified nature, with no
regaliad marshals, or dancing, or other amusements, to attract the fancy of
young people.

Oral examinations in the class-rooms and declamations and reading of
compositions in one of the East Building rooms, fitted up for a public hall, in
the presence of elderly gentlemen and Mrs. Spaight and probably Mrs. Mary Ker,
the wife of the Presiding Professor, constituted the exercises.

We have a letter from Davie written a few days afterwards, in which he
says that the students acquitted themselves well, but with the refrigerating
addition, "everything considered." The Trustees were disgusted with
the exorbitant charges of the contractors, Patterson of Chatham and Hopkins,
for extra work; in Davie's opinion four times what they ought to have been.
There is abundant evidence all through the early records of the watchful
economy of the guardians of the interests of the University.

The letter was addressed to Treasurer John Haywood, who was absent from
the meeting on account of the death of his first wife. It is interesting to see
what kind of consolation the free-thinker, Davie, offers to one afflicted.
"I regret exceedingly the various causes which produced your absence from
the Board. However, as the Arabs say, 'God would have it so and men must
submit.' Under misfortunes like yours there is no comfort because nothing
can be substituted. The only recourse of the human mind in such cases is in a
kind of philosophic fortitude, the calm result of time, reason and
reflection." Contrast this with the Christian's consolation,
"Sorrow not as they who have no hope."

GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

On this occasion the Board determined to erect a house for a Grammar
School, which should contain three or four lodging rooms, and thus relieve the
congested state of the dwellers in the Old East Building. It would also
separate from the older the very young students, some of whom were of such
tender years, though tough in conscience, that it was necessary for their
benefit to introduce corporal punishment. This school building was situated in
the woods, south of Rosemary Street and west of the late public school, a place
peculiarly lonely, but near two never-failing springs of purest water.

Richard Sims, an advanced student from Warren County, seems to have been
the first master of the Grammar School. In the month of December, 1796, was
chosen Nicholas Delvaux, and with him on account of the rapid increase of
numbers, was associated Samuel Allen Holmes, who had been a preacher. The
antecedents of both of these teachers are unknown. Soon afterwards Holmes was
promoted to the University and William Richards, late a teacher in the Academy
of Mr. Marcus George in Warrenton, was placed in the Grammar School in his
stead.

It has been mentioned that those of the early students who wrote the
best compositions were rewarded by having their names posted on an honor roll.
The first who won this distinction was in August, 1795, Richard Sims, of
Warrenton,

his theme being "The Employment of
Time." The second was Thomas A. Osborne on Habit. The third was Thomas A.
Osborne on the question, "Do Savage or Civilized Nations Enjoy the Most
Happiness." The fourth Edwin Jay Osborne on "The Uses of
Geometry." The fifth by Edwin Jay Osborne on "Self
Government." He divided honors in the sixth with Hinton James, the themes
respectively being, "The Uses of the Passions" and "The Uses
of the Sun." In the next week the same Osborne and Henry Kearney were the
first, on "The Distinction Between Resentment and Revenge," by the
former, and "The Uses of the Moon," by the latter. This honor roll
was discontinued after the first year.

THE LITERARY SOCIETIES.

The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies have been such a large part of
our university life that I must give their origin.

It was doubtless through the influence of Tutor Harris, who had seen the
benefits of the renowned Whig Society of Princeton, of which he was a member,
that the first literary society of the University was formed, as his name is
the first on the list of signers to the preliminary articles. It was organized
on the 3d day of June, 1795, under the name of "The Debating
Society." The first President was James Mebane, of Orange, afterwards of
Caswell; the first Clerk or Secretary was John Taylor, of Orange; the first
Treasurer was Lawrence Toole, who changed his name to Henry Irwin Toole, of
Edgecombe, grandfather of Bishop Joseph B. Cheshire; the first Censor Morum,
Richard Sims, of Warren, afterwards Principal of the Grammar School.

The objects of the society were expressed to be the cultivation of a
lasting friendship and the promotion of useful knowledge. The members pledged
themselves under hands and seals to obedience to the laws of the society and
due performance of the regular exercises. I give the names of those fathers of
the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies.

There was no constitution eo
nomine, but there were "Laws and Regulations," some
of which are worthy of mention. The officers were a President, Censor Morum,
two Correctors, a Clerk, and Treasurer. The President and Treasurer held
offie for three weeks, the other officers for six
weeks.

The Censor Morum was clothed with powers and duties which would not be
tolerated in this generation, "to inspect the conduct and morals of the
members and report to the society those who preserve inattention to the studies
of the University, in neglect of their duties as members, or in acting in such
a manner as to reflect disgrace on their fellow-members." This making the
society responsible for attention to University exercises has been long ago
abandoned, after the effort came near breaking it into fragments. This powerful
officer, evidently modelled after the august Censors of Rome, presided in the
absence of the President.

The society met on Thursday evenings only. The members were divided into
three classes. These read, spoke and composed alternately. There was a debate
at each session, two opposing members previously appointed opening, and then
the other members had a right to discuss the question, but were not compelled
to do so.

It was the duty of each member of the class whose turn it was to
"read" to hand in a "query," then called "subject
of debate," and out of these one was chosen for the next meeting by the
society.

It must be noticed that the "reading" mentioned above meant
the reading aloud of an extract from some author. Of the other two classes one
declaimed memorized extracts, and the other read aloud short essays of their
own composition.

Two votes were sufficient to negative an application for membership. The
term "black-ball" was not then in vogue. The new members when
admitted were required to "promise not to divulge any of the secrets of
the society." The stringency of this provision has been since materially
modified.

It was made dangerous to "take umbrage at being fined," and
to denote it by word or action," because, if the fine should be found to
be legal, the accused must pay a quarter of a dollar for his squirming. There
was mercifully no penalty for showing umbrage by a gloomy countenance unless
the gloom was evidenced by frowning or other facial action.

There seems to have been no fine for laughing or talking, unless a
speaker was interrupted.

The practice of wearing hats in the society, as is permitted in the
English Parliament, was forbidden. The President, however, of at least one
society, the Dialectic, was after some years required to preside with hat on,
often a high-crowned beaver borrowed for the purpose.

The admission fee was one quarter of a dollar. If a member absented
himself for three months, without obtaining a diploma of dismission, he must
seek a new admission.

A member could leave the society without asking its consent, nor was any
student compelled to join it. But having once left there could be no
re-admission.

It shows the high purpose of the founders of the society, that the first
motion made after the admission of members, at the first meeting on June 3d,
1795, was for the purchase of books. It passed unanimously. The mover was Tutor
Harris.

The first speech made in this parent of the Dialectic and Philanthropic
Societies was by James Mebane who sustained the affirmative of the first query
ever debated, "Is the study of ancient authors useful?" He was
answered by Robert Smith. I am proud to state that the classics won the
day.

At the second meeting, on June 11, 1795, it was agreed to admit no more
new members. A great moral question was then discussed, the names of the
speakers being omitted. This was "Is the truth always to be adhered
to?" the decision being "that breaches of faith are sometimes
proper." It is gratifying to observe that the decisions of the queries
debated were as a rule conservative and sensible.

On the 25th of June, 1795, Maurice Moore moved that the society be
divided. The motion was laid over for one week and on July 2d was taken up and
carried. The new organization was called "The Concord Society." We
can only conjecture the cause of the new movement, as no reason appears on the
journal. It is possible that there was in it an element of party feeling.
Jeffersonian Democracy claimed to be the peculia advocate of the "Rights
of Man." The name Concord, and the substituted Philanthropic, and the
addition of the word Liberty to the motto of the other society, look in this
direction.

Another reason for the division was probably to have the number so small
as to allow and require every member to perform some duty at each weekly
meeting. The prohibition of further addition to the membership of the first
society seems to show this.

A third reason for the change was, I think, hostility to the extensive
powers and duties of the Censor Morum, heretofore described. I make this
conjecture because the officer was omitted in the new body, and when it was
restored after many months his duties were carefully confined to behavior of
members in society. Even this however proved unsatisfactory and

the name was changed to Vice-President. It will now be
admitted that the seceding students were right in their attitude. The Dialectic
Society eventually came to the same conclusion.

For some weeks it was allowable to belong to both societies, which was
practicable as they met on different nights in order to have the use of the
same room. The first student, Hinton James, and Maurice and Alfred Moore were
for awhile active members of both. When the duplicate membership was forbidden
they elected the new.

I cannot find an official list of the "Fathers" of the
Concord or Philanthropic Society, but after carefully examining the journal I
think that the following can be relied on:

Hinton James . . . . . . . New Hanover.

Richard Eagles . . . . . . . New Hanover.

George Washington Long . . . . . . . Halifax.

John Taylor . . . . . . . Chapel Hill.

William McKenzie Clark . . . . . . . Martin.

David Gillespie . . . . . . . Duplin.

Edwin Jay Osborne . . . . . . . Salisbury.

Evan Jones . . . . . . . Wilmington.

Nicholas Long . . . . . . . Franklin.

James Paine . . . . . . . Unknown.

Alexander McCulloch . . . . . . . Halifax.

David Evans . . . . . . . Edgecombe.

Henry Kearney . . . . . . . Warren.

Thomas Hunt . . . . . . . Granville.

Lewis Dickson . . . . . . . Duplin.

John Bryan . . . . . . . Sampson.

Lawrence Ashe Dorsey . . . . . . . Wilmington.

Joseph Gillespie . . . . . . . Duplin.

In all, 18.

The residence of James Paine does not appear further than that he was
from North Carolina.

The records of the Dialectic Society state that the following remained
in the Debating Society at the time of the division, their full names and
residences having already been given, viz.: Messrs. Harris, Houston Toole, H.
and F. Burton, R. Smith, Bennehan, Kinchen, Sims, Haywood, Ruffin, James,
Green, A. Osborne, W. Dickson, Sneed, J. and E. Pettigrew, Davie, Mebane, M.
and A. Moore. Of these, as was said, James and the two Moores soon became
members of the other, and John Pettigrew followed a year afterwards.

The first meeting of the Concord Society was August 10, 1795. David
Gillespie was the first President, Evan Jones the first Treasurer, Henry
Kearney the first Clerk. The first debaters were George W. Long and Henry
Kearney, on the question "Which is best--an Education or a
Fortune?" It is consistent with the honorable career of the society that
the decision was in favor of education.

The first President, son of James Gillespie, of Duplin, member of
Congress for eight years, was evidently a most promising student. By the
courtesy of David S. Nicholson, I give a copy of the certificate granted him on
his leaving the University, the first document in the nature of a diploma ever
granted.

We, the undersigned Professors of the University of North Carolina, have had under our particular care Mr. David Gillespie of this State. He has studied Greek and Latin and the elementary Mathematics in their application to Surveying, Navigation, etc. He has also read under our care Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. His behavior, while at this place, has met with our warmest approbation. Mr. Gillespie, being about to leave the University to attend Mr. Ellicot in determining the Southern boundary of the United States, we have thought proper to give him this certificate.

CHAS. W. HARRIS, Prof. of Math. and N. Phil.

SAM'L HOLMES, Prof. of Lang.

W. L. RICHARDS, Teacher of French and English.

University, N. C., September 22, 1796.

To this was attached the certificate of Sam. Ashe, Governor, attested by
Roger Moore, Private Secretary, with the great seal of the State, that the
above-named were professors of the University as alleged.

After working for about a year it occurred to the members of both
societies that English names were not of sufficient dignity. Accordingly on the
25th of August, 1796, in pursuance of a motion made by James Webb, of
Hillsboro, a week preceding, the name Debating was changed into its Greek
equivalent, Dialectic. And four days afterward, on the 29th of August, 1796,
the Greek Philanthropic took the place of Concord, on motion of David
Gillespie. I have no information

as to whether, when this
name was adopted the pronunciation was wrongly Phi-lanthropic instead of
Phil-anthropic. Johnson's dictionary, then the standard, gives no countenance
to it, and I am inclined to think that the mispronunciation, prevalent here for
many decades, arose from the custom universal among students of abbreviating
names in common use, and from the euphonic wish to have the nickname sound like
Di. Those familiar with university life know well that undergraduates would
smash every dictionary in the land before they would be called Phils., or, as
it soon would have become, Phillies.

The Fundamental Laws, afterwards called Constitution, and the course of
proceedings of the two societies were much alike.

In the Concord for a short while new members could be admitted by a
majority vote. The first restriction was the requirement of two-thirds in case
the applicant was under fifteen years of age. I notice no other material
differences, and I make no further distinction between the two in endeavoring
to reproduce their action.

In the declamations, then called "speaking," we miss Patrick
Henry's "give me liberty or give me death," because that speech was
written by Wirt long afterwards, nor of course do we find Emmet's, "Let
no man write my epitaph." In their places were Cicero's denunciations of
Verres, and Demosthenes' thunderings against Philip, Micipsa's plea against
Jugurtha, Brutus over the body of Lucretia, Catalines' speech to his soldiers,
and the like.

It is surprising that the stock utterances of our Revolutionary sires,
such as Otis, Adams, Henry, Rutledge, R. H. Lee, were not reproduced in our
halls. It is in accord with the hatred of Great Britain which had not all waned
that there were no selections from the great English orators.

The readings were extracts from history, poetry, the Spectator, and the
like literature. They were generally serious; occasionally comic, for example,
"The Stuttering Soldier." "The Bald-headed Cove."
"Anecdote of Miss Bush." It shows the difference in the habit of
matutinal sleeping that one of the essays was in ridicule of "The Boy Who
Lay in Bed After

Sunrise." The extract chosen by
David Gillespie from the preface to Murray's Grammar, just out of press, was of
sufficient gravity.

Not many of the subjects of composition are given. Among them I notice
"Oratory," "Eloquence," "Unpoliteness,"
"Industry."

But the subjects chosen for debates, and the votes taken thereon, throw
much greater light on the intellectual attitude of the students. I therefore
cull from the records of both societies such of those subjects as will show the
tastes and opinions of the members during the first two years of the university
life.

I have already shown that the decision was that education is better than
riches. It was likewise decided that public education is of more advantage than
private, and horribile
dictu, that the schoolmaster is of more advantage to society
than the preacher. The members were of the opinion that wisdom tends to
happiness; that modern history is of more value to students than ancient; that
a liberal education is more conducive to happiness than a savage life. The
theory of Rousseau, that savage is on the whole happier than civilized life,
was at one time affirmed; at another, negatived. It was voted that the French
language is of more value than the Latin.

In an unguarded moment one of the societies agreed to discuss whether
traveling improves the mind, whereupon there is the following curious entry,
"As the question intended for debate is not "thinkable," the
opponents coincided in opinion. The debate was therefore not a good one, but,
after the regular business was over, we debated on this question, "Does a
man with a competency, or he who is in a very affluent station, enjoy most
happiness." The admirers of Solomon will be gratified to know that
competency was successful.

This incident reminds me that Mrs. Delphina E. Mendenhall, of Guilford,
a Quakeress, presented to the Dialectic Society Dymond's Essays, advocating
universal peace. When a student I induced the Query Committee to report the
question, taken from the essays, "Is War Ever Justifiable?" The
great debaters in the society declared that it was altogether one-sided,

refused to discuss it, and censured the committee for
adopting a query on one side of which nothing could be said. As it was not my
turn to speak, I had not crammed on the subject from Dymond and was unable to
bring forward a single Quaker argument in order to avert the displeasure of the
house.

The last educational topic will astonish readers of this generation. It
was however discussed seriously in a literary society of an American
university, "Shall Corporal Punishment be Introduced Into the
University?" The memory of smarting backs and knuckles produced an
emphatic No! I must explain that the small boys in the institution had not then
been separated from the rest and placed in a preparatory department.

The members were fairly orthodox, although infidelity and lawless
theories were so prevalent throughout the world. It was decided that Religion
makes mankind happy, that Self-Conceit does not produce happiness, that the
Bible is to be believed, that the Profligate is more unhappy than the Moralist,
that Polygamy is not consistent with the will of God, that temporary marriages
would not conduce to the good of society, that Suicide can never be
justifiable. Even on the concrete question, whether Lucretia was justifiable in
killing herself, it was voted that the poor lady was blameable, although by her
martyrdom she inaugurated popular government in Rome.

On what is called the Jesuitical doctrine of Pious Frauds, it was voted
that they are wrong, although on the similar question whether it is ever
allowable to tell lies the members agreed with military men, statesmen and
others that occasion may arise to justify them. As to which is most despicable
the Thief or the Liar, the decision was that the Thief was the worst. Indeed on
another occasion it was solemnly voted that he ought to be hung instead of
receiving the milder punishment of forty stripes save one. On the question,
"Is Debauchery or Drunkenness most prejudicial," drunkenness was
pronounced the lesser evil. The miser was considered an unworthy character
evidently, because it was discussed whether we have the right to kill him and
distribute his property. He was spared. A blow was struck at the Sermon on the
Mount when it was decided that it is not consistent with reason to love one's
enemies.

It is gratifying that they thought that actions
cannot be politically right and morally wrong. Whether duelling is ever
justifiable was discussed several times. Twice it was sustained and once the
decision was adverse, though it is significant that Tutor Harris then opened
the debate. Salaried ministers of the gospel should breathe more freely on
learning that the students of 1796 deemed it conformable to the Christian
religion for preachers to get wages. Fun-lovers should be comforted in knowing
their opinion, that "moderate fortune and good humor are preferable to a
large estate and bad disposition."

Other decisions were: that Health is better than Riches; that love of
mankind is more prevalent than love of money; that Flattery is sometimes
useful; that the pursuit of an object gives greater happiness than the
enjoyment; that Pride is essential to happiness; that a man is happier in
seeking his own approbation than in seeking that of others; that a state of
Nature is a state of war; that the Immortality of the soul is not deducible
from reason; that beasts have no souls. It is surprising that young men in the
last decade of the 18th century, with the war spirit hot throughout the world,
debated with warmth, but could not be brought to a decision, the question,
"Is it justifiable to kill one who is threatening one's life?"

Among the moral and religious questions it should perhaps be mentioned
that the opponents of such amusements as dancing, fox hunting, horse racing,
and the like, had the strength to bring forward the query, "Is it politic
for the Trustees to permit a Dancing School at the University?" They were
out-voted.

During the first years of the University the students were totally
debarred from the society of ladies of their own age, as the village was merely
on paper. It is to be noted, however, that none the less was their interest in
all questions of a social nature. "Does a matrimonial or single life
confer most happiness" was gravely decided in favor of marriage.
"Are Talents or Riches greater recommendations to ladies?" was
asked, and the society honored the fair sex by answering "Talents."
"Are ladies or wine most deleterious to students?" was another
question,

the palm for deleteriousness being awarded, I
grieve to say, to the ladies. Greater gratitude was shown, however, in the
decision of the next, "Is female modesty natural or affected?"
nature getting the credit. The members wrestled with this rather nebulous
speculation, "Is love without hope, or malice without revenge, most
injurious," but never came to a conclusion. I presume this was one of the
"non-thinkable" subjects. The members knew their own minds however
on this question, "Should a man marry for gold or for beauty?", the
preference being given to the red metal.

Of course questions of public policy were frequently debated. Indeed one
enthusiastic member proposed that the Constitution of the United States should
be discussed clause by clause, but this was too great a task. The extent of the
powers granted by the Constitution, the unconstitutionality of acts of
Congress, seem not to have attracted attention. I find only questions of
expediency or the reverse. For example, "Is an excise tax consistent with
the principles of Liberty?" answered in the affirmative. "Are
standing armies useful?" answered No. "Are the salaries of United
States officers too great?" answered Yes. "Is the neutrality of the
United States in the French-British War consistent with gratitude?"
answer, Yes. "Should the United States pay the British debts?"
answer, No. "Which is best a pure Democracy or a mixed government?"
answer, Mixed. "Should foreigners be allowed to hold offices in the
United States?" answer at one time, Yes; at another, No. "Should
army officers be appointed by the executive or Legislature?" answer, by
the executive. "Should our diplomatic intercourse be diminished?"
answer, No. "Is there just cause of war by the United States against
France?" (February, 1797), decision, No. In April the same discussion
arose and the war spirit gained the vote. Should our Navy be increased?"
decision, Yes. "Should the United States further negotiate with
Algiers?" Decision, No. "Is it equitable and politic to confiscate
private property in war?" decision, Yes. "Is Spain blameable for
obstructing the navigation of the Mississippi?" decision, Yes. "Are
treaties contrary to the Law of Nations binding?" decision, Yes.
"Should the United States adopt Sumptuary Laws?" decision, Yes.

It is remarkable that the question should have been debated, "Is
the Constitution of England or the United States preferable?" The
decision, as might be expected, was in favor of the United States. The members
pronounced themselves in favor of a protective tariff. They anticipated the
action of this State sixty-one years in declaring for free suffrage for both
branches of the General Assembly. This shows the preponderance of Western
members. They likewise voted against the use of paper money. When this question
was called, Robert Burton, afterwards a North Carolina judge, and Nathaniel
Williams, afterwards a Tennessee judge, who had been appointed to open the
debate, declined to speak for the reason that they knew nothing of the subject.
This excuse was unanimously disallowed and they were promptly fined.

When it was argued "Is peace or war most useful?", it is
honestly recorded that the vote was in favor of war "from the
arguments." That Commerce is useful to Nations only passed by a majority
vote. As to the relative advantageousness of Commerce and Agriculture, the
preference was given to commerce. Was not this the old contest between Poseidon
against Athena, Neptune against Minerva?

On the slavery question the members on the whole took the Southern view,
yet there was evident a want of enthusiasm, if not positive doubt. It is likely
that the decision on the query, "Whether Africans have not as much right
to enslave Americans as Americans to enslave Africans?" viz.: that
"Africans have as good right, if not better," was in a jocular
spirit. But there was no joking in the declaration that Death is preferable to
Slavery, but it is probable that they meant slavery to white people. The fact,
however, that the members discussed the question "Whether slaves are
advantageous to the United States?" and "Whether the importation of
African slaves is of advantage to the United States?" shows that there
was difference of opinion, although the majority was in the affirmative in both
cases. A spirit of doubt as to the beneficence of the institution seems to be
implied in the question "Should slavery be abolished at this
time?", notwithstanding that the members answered no.

I give a few miscellaneous questions perhaps worthy to be recorded. The
right of the Legislatures of the States to instruct members of Congress was
debated but not decided. It is noticeable that a serious discussion was had as
to whether public offices should be venal, i. e., at liberty to be bought and
sold. The decision was adverse. It is in affirmance of what political
economists say of the abominable evils of the poor laws of England at this time
that a debate was had as to the propriety of making any provision for paupers,
although the conclusion was favorable. The members voted that the fathers
should retain the power of disinheriting altogether their children, although
admirers of French ways contended otherwise. The latter, however, succeeded in
obtaining a majority vote that Louis XVI. was justly beheaded. The members
showed their jealousy of the Federal government by voting on one occasion that
official salaries were too high, and on another that members of Congress should
be paid less wages than soldiers. They voted at one time that bodily strength
is better than valor in war, and at another that ingenuity is superior to
bodily strength. It seems that the vegetarian theory, one of the first modern
absurd "isms," had penetrated to our wilds, because the prohibition
of animal food was discussed, but it was too much to expect our keen-stomached
students with visions of ham and roast beef, or the savory fried chicken at
to-morrow's dinner, to vote against their consumption.

In the spring of 1796 both societies voted to substitute a play for all
other exercises, and the members made preparations with enthusiasm. This action
was probably stimulated by the advent of a tutor, Mr. Richards, who had been an
actor. The scenery was purchased at Williamsboro, but it does not appear why
such apparatus was in that village. Such was the zeal of the amateur Thespians
that one of the members who agreed to take two parts and failed without excuse
was incontinently expelled from one of the societies. I regret that I can find
no description of this great dramatic performance.

As showing the contrast between the reading room of 1796 and that of one
hundred years later I state that a motion was made in one of the societies that
the Halifax Journal be subscribed

for in behalf of the members; whereupon Alexander McCulloch, brother-in-law of
William Boylan, one of the editors, generously offered the use of his copy, and
the motion was withdrawn. A subsequent motion to buy the Fayetteville Hinerva was defeated, as one paper was deemed
sufficient. The following is the first list of books ever purchased by either
society. It shows taste for solid reading--not a novel among them.

Locke on the Human Understanding.

Woolstonecraft's Rights of Women.

Gillie's Greece.

Sully's Memoirs.

Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments.

Brown on Equality.

Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History.

Goldsmith's History of England, 4 volumes.

Gibbon's Decline and Fall.

Helvetius on the Human Mind.

Porcupine's Bloody Buoy.

Porcupine's Political Censor.

Love and Patriotism.

The Federalist.

Smith's Constitutions.

The most active of the earliest members of the Debating Society were, in
order of their names, Wm. Houston, Lawrence Toole, Robert Smith, Francis
Burton, James Webb, Richard Simms, Alexander Osborne, Wm. M. Sneed, Hutchins G.
Burton, Wm. Dickson and Samuel Hinton. In the Concord Society the leaders were
David Gillespie, E. J. Osborne, George W. Long, Hinton James, Evan Jones, Henry
Kearney, Nicholas Long, Wm. Alston, David Cook, Lawrence A. Dorsey, Joseph
Gillespie. Of these David Gillespie, E. J. Osborne and George W. Long were most
prominent.

The professors of the University were admitted to be active members of
one or the other society, but do not often appear in the debates.

EARLY STUDENT LIFE--THE PETTIGREW LETTERS.

By the kindness of Miss Caroline Pettigrew, granddaughter of Ebenezer
Pettigrew, who with his brother John was a student of the University from the
spring of 1795 to the fall of

1797, I am able to give
glimpses of the inner life of the University in its infancy from letters
written by them to their father. Their father was Rev. Charles Pettigrew, of
Tyrrell County, who was chosen Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but
was prevented, by the breaking out of yellow fever in Philadelphia at the time,
and failing health afterwards, from being consecrated. I have also been
permitted by Mr. Norman Jones, of Raleigh, to examine a letter dated April,
1795, written to his mother by his ancestor, Nicholas Long, grandson of Colonel
Nicholas Long, of the North Carolina Continental line.

Letters by children to their parents were then as a rule much more
formal than is now usual. Long addresses his mother as "Honored
Mother;" but the Pettigrews wrote "Dear Father." Long's
father was dead and his mother had married a Methodist preacher, Rev. Daniel
Shine. He sends his "respects" to Mr. Shine. A married sister he
calls Sister Hill, and the husband of another sister he calls "Brother
Green." The Presiding Professor he called Rev. Parson Ker. The Pettigrews
sign themselves, or rather John signs for both, "your dutiful
sons." They always send their "duties" to their mother and
compliments to all others. In one letter the word "compliments" was
in the message to the mother, but it was scratched out and "duties"
substituted. Bishop Pettigrew's letter to Jackey and Ebley, as he calls them,
are exceedingly affectionate and wise.

The boys saw no newspapers. Weeks intervened between letters. The
postage to Bertie County, where Dr. Pettigrew once lived, is usually endorsed
17 cents. Once John informed him that he was forced to pay at Chapel Hill 12
1-2 cents when his father prepaid the same amount. The latter afterwards
retorted: "What you designed for frugality accidentally resulted
otherwise. You thought by your two letters on the same sheet, or rather half
sheet of post paper, to save expenses, but I find 44 cents on the letter. 45 is
just the postage of three letters. Your putting two wafers and two addresses
has made it a double letter for which they charge double postage." The
consistency of the charges of the Postal Department seems open to criticism,
judging from the foregoing statements.

We learn from these letters, and from other sources, something of the
modes of travel to and from the University. Some came on horseback, some in
"chairs" or double sulkies, others in carts. Long wrote that, if
"the boy" would start by daybreak with the horse, he might make the
journey from his home, Sandy Creek, in Franklin County, 65 miles, in one day.
The following extract from one of the Pettigrew letters shows the difficulty of
transporting persons and things. "Send up a double chair with a
portmanteau and a pair of saddle-bags (as our chests will be too unhandy to be
carried in a chair), in which we could carry our clothes and some particular
books, but as there are a great many of them it would be needless to attempt
carrying them all in a chair. In my opinion it would be best for the rest to
stay until December when the boys who will come from Bertie will be coming up
in a cart, and as the cart will be going back empty I have no doubt they would
take down a chest of books to Windsor, from whence they might easily be
conveyed to Tyrrell. My bed I can dispose of." They were not expecting to
return to the University.

Among other things they tell of the sad necessity of going nearly
barefoot, because of the non-existence of a shoemaker in the village. They
hope, however, that an itinerant mender of shoes while on his circuit will come
to their relief. They asked their father to have pairs of new shoes ready at
their homes when the session shall be over, for, said they, shoes are expensive
at Chapel Hill, being 18 shillings or $1.80 a pair. They marked the
length of their feet on the margin of the big sheet on which they wrote, thus
giving us a hint of the rudeness of the foot coverings of that day, no other
measure than the length being given to the workman. If they had enclosed a slip
instead of notching the paper it would have subjected the letter to double
postage, i. e., the postage of the order would have been nearly 20 per cent of
the cost of the article.

Another trouble they had was the difficulty of procuring a bed, meaning
one made of the soft feathers of geese. They slept for a while at the house of
a family named Kimball, in the only room to be rented in town, but, the
Kimballs announcing their intention to move to "Caintuck"
(Kentucky), it became

necessary for the boys to move into
the college building, and hence a bed of their own was essential. They state
that the Steward, Mr. Taylor, had beds to rent for the enormous price of
£12, or $24 per annum. Their father earnestly cautioned them
against the danger of sleeping on hard boards after enjoying the luxury of
feathers all the summer, and saved them from this evil by sending the coveted
piece of furniture from his home in the "chair" designed for the
return of the boys in vacation.

Moving into the Old East, they were forced to share the apartment with
four others, but they were comforted by the fact that two of them were little
boys of the Grammar School. Some of the "small boys" they
discovered were loud-mouthed nuisances. They found in this room a more grievous
nuisance even than noisy "small boys"--the bully. "One
of our room-mates desires," they wrote, "to reign king, saying if
we would not obey him he would use rough methods." Those who had breathed
the free air of the Albemarle could not submit to be slaves. "This we
disliked," they said, "knowing that no student durst take upon
himself the authority, and that we were all on an equality, and to be
room-mates and not one inferior to another." Although the aspiring Kaiser
was in a minority of one to five, the Pettigrews changed their quarters, but
John remarked, "I shall say nothing of my new companions until I get
better acquainted with them." He added, "There is only room for
five or six more, unless the Trustees allow eight in a room, which we earnestly
deprecate. I find it very difficult to get six well-behaved, it would be almost
impossible to get eight well-behaved, boys in a room."

As might be expected these growing boys were much concerned about their
food. They praised Mrs. Puckett when they boarded with her, but the strictures
on food at Commons are generally severe. At one time they said "The bread
is not near so good as Fillis bakes for herself. It is
impossible to describe the badness of the tea and coffee, and the meat
generally stinks and has maggots in it." "Fillis"
("Phyllis") is evidently their mother's cook, and the bread for
herself was in all probability old-fashioned ashcakes, i. e., lumps of
corn-meal dough, covered over with hot embers and so baked.

At another time these sons of a planter, who raised corn by the
boat-load on the rich eastern bottoms, wrote: "We are afraid we will be
pushed for provisions as Mr. Taylor (the Steward) buys corn by the bag-full. In
case of necessity we shall get into hollow trees and do as the bears do. It
would never do to set off for home. We would perish on the road."

A more horrible grievance arose from those hideous animals, who, in the
darkness of the night, hasten to imbrue their jaws in human gore. Pine
bedsteads with holes in the sides for the cords, and the wooden chests of six
young fellows, ignorant of the arts of extermination, or too indolent to adopt
them, gave full play to the Malthusian doctrine of increase by geometrical
ratio, of these foes of man. We need not be surprised therefore at their rapid
multiplication in one year. "We dread the approach of warm
weather," they plaintively wrote. "They are five times as bad as
last year, and then we were hardly able to rest. We will not need any bleeding
(by physicians). There is one comfort, there are no mosquitoes." These
nocturnal foes they called Sabines, an inappropriate name it appears to me, as
the historians tell us those robbers carried off young ladies; whereas young
men were here the victims. The next year they raise a wail of woe: "The
Sabines have quite defeated us. We have given them the entire possession of our
room. None of us have been able to sleep in it for five weeks. I generally
spread out tables in the passage and pour water around the legs. They are in
general poor swimmers." All these horrors, notwithstanding a by-law which
ordered the students to cleanse their rooms of bugs every two weeks! How their
mother's heart must have ached at the persecution of her darlings!

In October, 1795, is the first mention of a dismissal of a student. The
Pettigrew boys say he was "banished." As the offence recalls a
custom among our ancestors which has become obsolete, I must, in the interest
of folk-lore, explain it. Frank Burton and Joseph Green, after being
prohibited, went to a "Cotton Picking."

What was a Cotton Picking? I am able to give you the information derived
from two veracious witnesses, in their youth participants in the game.

Before the use of Whitney's gin had become common the seed of cotton was
separated from the lint by hand. This was generally done at night, each member
of the household having his or her task. Each was compelled to fill one of his
or her shoes with seed before being allowed to "court the balmy,"
as Dick Swiviller termed it. Of course, children and ladies of small feet had
the advantage over those of mountainous understandings who went late to bed.
Darwin would explain the great preponderance of ladies of little feet, such as
we see in all Southern gatherings, by the theory that females of former
generations, able to wear diminutive shoes, filled them with seed early in the
night, secured a larger amount of refreshing sleep, became thereby more healthy
and beautiful, and in consequence always secured husbands, while the haggard
faces of those going late to bed condemned the unfortunate big-footians to
single blessedness.

Sometimes the owner of the snowy pile would invite the young men and
maidens to a Cotton Picking frolic, analagous to quiltings, corn-shuckings, and
log-rollings, providing toothsome refreshments. The cotton was placed in the
middle of the room, parties would pick against each other, and amid
good-humored rivalry and rustic merriment the work would soon be finished. Then
the floor would be swept and the neighborhood fiddler, often as black as ebony,
would strike up "Molly put the Kettle on," or "T-u Turkey, Ty
Tie, T-u Turkey Buzzard's Eye," or "Crow he Peeped at the
Weasel," or "Old Molly Hare," in such entrancing strains that
every toe in the assembly became stark crazy as if smitten by St. Vitus. Even
the legs of the table would quiver with excitement. A jolly succession of reels
and break-downs and "Cutting the pigeon's wing" would ensue. If the
preacher's influence prevented dancing, games were substituted such as
"Hunt the Slipper," "Blindman's Buff," or "I'm
Pining." Burton and Green were attracted to one of these festivals, even
as the candle-fly seeks the blazing torch. They had their fun, but the avenging
eye of Dr. Ker was upon them. The sentence was public admonition before the
University. Burton, "like a little man," took the medicine and
afterwards won honors as a student.

But Joe Green's pride
caused him to decline to submit and so sentence of dismissal was passed on him.
I think it no harm to give his name as heading the line of students whose
presence has been dispensed with by the Faculty; first, because he became a
respected merchant of New Bern, his career not being impeded by this incident,
and secondly, his offence was not a malum in se, but
malum prohibitum only.

It appears that Bishop Pettigrew requested his sons to give him
confidential information as to the manners and morals of the students. They do
so, but like loyal students ask him not to divulge their disclosures,
satirically remarking, "its (the University's) character will be known
soon enough to its disadvantage and confusion." Their secret report thus
made was that: "the students in general have nothing very criminal,
except a vile and detestable practice of cursing and swearing--which are
carried on here to the greatest perfection. Even from the smallest to the
largest they vent their oaths with the greatest ease imaginable. Hardly a
sentence passes without some of those high-flown words which sailors divert
themselves with." "Their favorite book is Paine's Age of
Reason." Doubtless this account is substantially true. Profanity and
infidelity were the fashion of the day. It should be taken, however, with the
explanation that John and Ebenezer were raised on a large plantation, strictly
and religiously, and probably were never associated with boys before. They do
not give examples of the oaths. Let us charitably hope that many of them were
no worse than "Go to the Dickens," "Deuce Take You,"
"Durn It," "Dog Gone You," and like expletives, which
some people do not distinguish from more pronounced profanity. It is comforting
to have the report favorable as to drinking, gambling, and the like.

John writes that while Ebenezer is unable for lack of funds, he himself
has joined a dancing school, saying that he could not forego gaining what he
calls "such a genteel accomplishment." He adds, "There are a
number of students in the class, but not any ladies, and there is not as much
order and regularity as if there were several decent ladies." The terms
were $4 for six months' instruction.

Their report as to study is, to use their expression,
"middling" favorable. They say: "the Seniors and others who
are old enough to understand its value study pretty closely, but there are a
great many small boys, half of whom do little or nothing. They are the ones who
make the greatest proficiency in the art of swearing."

The letter-writers praise highly Dr. Ker and Professor Harris. For the
particular information of Latin students I state that they studied Eutropius
and Cornelius Nepos before going into Cæsar. Their testimony is that they
learned more Latin in a few months than in all their lives before.

As a contribution to the Society for Investigating Psychical Phenomena,
I give a strange coincidence. Bishop Pettigrew and his wife both dreamed the
same night that their sons were sick, and at that very moment, although
separated by all the distance from Chapel Hill to Tyrrell County, about 180
miles as the crow flies, these boys were in unusual good health, and so
continued for months. If only one of them had been, simultaneously with the
dreams, a little ailing, even to the extent of a head or tooth-ache, or
groaning over the agonies of a green peach or so, what exultation would have
filled the breasts of enthusiastic spiritualists.

We gather also from the letters something of the health of the students
and of the practice of medicine a hundred years ago. John Pettigrew had an
enlarged spleen when he came, but it improved at Chapel Hill, although he was
not cured. At one time he took for it arrow-root steeped in brandy two or three
times a day. This remedy he quit because of the high price of the brandy, 75
cents a quart. He then turned to Peruvian bark and snake-root, at one time
ceasing for ten days because he could obtain no snake-root. Twice his spleen
grew in size, but he attributes that to the want of exercise.

On April 12, 1796, he wrote: "There are 86 students here. All are
in perfect health except one taken with the rheumatism last night." In a
letter dated May 27, 1797, he wrote, "The mumps is a disease which is
very prevalent. There are 30 or 40 cases, but none have been hurt by them very
much. Ebley and I have had no symptoms as yet."

"The small-pox is seven or eight miles from here, brought by a man
from Norfolk. He is well, but it is rumored that his mother has been taken. I
do not believe that it will come here, as people are much afraid of it and use
all precautions. It would certainly be destructive to this institution, as I
have no doubt it would kill one-half of those infected, as our blood is in as
bad a state as possible owing to the vast quantities of butter which we eat,
and we have no proper attendance. But we would get horses and go home."
The disease did not reach Chapel Hill then or at any subsequent day.

John was a draughtsman and sent home a colored picture of the Old East,
1797, two-storied and only two-thirds of its present length. [The bricks are of
the original color, except that between the first and second stories there is a
broad white band all around the building. There is a platform at each outer
door, the steps descending from it towards the north and south.]

Let me add that John's disease carried him off--an exceedingly
promising man--two years after he left the University. Ebenezer became a
prosperous planter; his plantations Magnolia and Belgrade, in Washington
County, were famous for their fertility and good management. He was induced
when a young man to serve two terms in the State Senate and, after passing
middle life, to be a member of the House of Representatives of the United
States, but he preferred the happier life of a private citizen. His youngest
son was the lamented General James Johnston Pettigrew, a graduate of 1847, who
seemed to me to be the ablest man I ever met. Commodore Maury, who had seen the
greatest men of his day said--this I know to be authentic--that if by
any cause General Lee's place should be vacated, General Pettigrew would be the
fittest man to take his place.

THE NEW PLAN OF EDUCATION.

In December, 1795, after a year's experience with the raw, mostly
untaught youths of diverse ages and acquirements, the institution was divided
into two branches, called "The Preparatory School" and "The
Professorships of the University."

is far ahead of the times, anticipates in some respects
the work of Jefferson with the University of Virginia, and is very similar to
our present plan:

A. The Preparatory School.

1st. (a) The English language, to be taught grammatically on the basis of Webster's and South's Grammar.

(b) Writing in a neat and correct manner.

(c) Arithmetic with the four first rules, with the Rule of Three

(d) Reading and pronouncing select passages from the purest English authors.

(e) Copying in a fair and correct manner select English Essays.

2nd. After this preliminary course the student must learn the Latin Language, beginning with Ruddiman's Rudiments and then studying Cordery, then Erasmus, then Eutropius, then Cornelius Nepos, with translations. After these came Cæsar's Commentaries, and Sallust, without translations, but at the request of parents translations might be used with them. Kennett's Roman Antiquities to be studied contemporaneously.

When the students can render Eutropius into correct English and explain the government and connection of the words, then they must begin the study of the French Language. 1st, The Grammar; 2nd, Telemachus; 3rd, Cyrus; 4th, Gil Blas.

The study of Greek is optional. If this language should be chosen the pupil must study, 1st, The Grammar; 2nd, The Gospels in the original, beginning when the French should have begun.

The rudiments of Geography must be studied on the plan of Guthrie.

After the students begin the French, the French and Latin languages shall be so associated that both may be finished at nearly the same time.

It is allowable to study all three of the above mentioned languages, in which case the student must finish the Gospels in Greek when he is through the Preparatory School.

The English language shall be regularly continued, it being considered the primary object, and the other languages but auxiliaries.

Any language, except English, may be omitted at the request of the parents.

II. Plan of Education under the Professorships of the University:

1st. The President.

Rhetoric on the plan of Sheridan.

Belles-Lettres on the plan of Blair and Rollin.

B. Professorships of the University.

a. Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy and History; the study of the following authors:

b. Professor of Natural Philosophy, Astronomy and Geography.

2. Geography. The use of Globes, the Geometrical, political and commercial relations of the different nations of the earth. Astronomy on the plan of Ferguson.

c. Professor of Mathematics.

1. Arithmetic in a scientific manner.

2. Algebra and the application of Algebra to Geometry.

3. Euclid's Elements.

4. Trigonometry and its application to the Mensuration of Heights and Distances of Surfaces and Solids, Surveying and Navigation.

Electives. Thus far the mathematical studies are obligatory. The following might be pursued if desired. Conic Sections, The Doctrine of the Sphere and the Cylinder, The Projection of the Sphere, Spherical Trigonometry, The Doctrine of Fluxions, The Doctrine of Chances and Annuities.

d. The Professor of Chemistry and the Philosophy of Medicine, Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.

Chemistry upon the most approved plan.

e. Professor of Languages.

1. The English Language--Elegant Extracts in Prose and Verse. Scott's Collections.

2. The Latin Language--Virgil, Cicero's Orations, Horace's Epistles, including the Art of Poetry.

3. The Greek Language--Lucian, Xenophon.

In addition to the regular course, the Professor of Languages must
"attend, when required, the reading of Cicero de Officiis, and Horace and
Livy, and in the Greek Longinus on the Sublime, the Orations of Demosthenes and
Homer's Iliad." The

rudiments of language are to be
attended to, the different forms and figures of speech are to be noticed by the
professor, and comments made on the sentiments and beauties of the authors;
parallel sentences quoted, particular idioms observed, and all allusions to
distant manners and customs explained.

The students under the Professor of Languages are to deliver to him
twice a week translations into English of some classic, in which, "after
expressing the sense of the author, the spirit and elegance of the translation
are principally to be regarded."

The students of the other classes shall every Saturday deliver to the
President a composition on a subject of their own choosing, and he shall
correct the errors in orthography, grammar, style or sentiment, and make the
necessary observations thereon.

Those passing approved examinations on the studies of the Preparatory
School were entitled to be admitted "upon the general establishment of
the University."

Those passing an approved examination in English, and the first four
rules of Arithmetic with the Rule of Three, could be admitted to study under
the President and any of the Professors, except the Professor of Languages. In
order to enter his department the applicant must stand an approved examination
on the English language, and on Cæsar's Commentaries and Sallust. But it
was not required to translate English into Latin.

No preliminary examination was required of one wishing to study under
the fourth professor, i. e., Chemistry, the Philosophy of Medicine, Agriculture
and the Mechanic Arts.

There were no prizes instituted by professors, but the Trustees
endeavored to stimulate study by offering to donate a book to the best scholar
in each department, viz.: a copy of the text-book used therein. The early
students either borrowed or rented their text-books.

This plan of education is all the more observable because it was the
work of Davie after mature consideration. The record shows that he offered it,
that it was referred to a committee composed of himself, Judge Williams, Hogg,
Haywood,

and Adlai Osborne, and was reported back and
adopted. The North Carolina Journal of that date has,
doubtless in Davie's words, a statement of the object aimed at. He began by
quoting from the French Convention, "That in every free government the
law emanates from the people, it is necessary that the people should receive an
education to enable them to direct the laws, and the political part of this
education should be consonant to the principles of the constitution under which
they live." He proceeds: "The plan of Education established by the
Board appears to be predicated on this principle, and designed to form useful
and respectable members of society--citizens capable of comprehending,
improving and defending the principles of government, citizens, who from the
highest possible impulse, a just sense of their own and the general happiness,
would be induced to practice the duties of social morality. A deep and fixed
conviction that it is degrading to be tributaries to other States or countries
for our literary and public characters, a general and strong desire to promote
education and exalt and improve our national character, have given a tone to
the public sentiment and bestowed a degree of emulation upon individuals, from
which the most happy effects may be expected."

Davie remembered that many of the leading men of the Revolution in North
Carolina were from other States. Certainly the degrading dependence of our
State for its public characters ceased after the establishment of the
University. Not only that, but the institution has furnished chief legislative,
executive, or judicial officers to all our Southern sisters, as well as to the
general government.

In correspondence with Caldwell on the subject of granting degrees,
Davie gave a clear exposition of the principles underlying his scheme.
"The variation of the plan from that of other colleges makes the question
of degrees a difficult one. A bachelor's degree generally imports a knowledge
of the learned languages as well as the sciences. To confer such a degree upon
a person who can understand neither Latin or Greek does not appear to be
proper. The ruling or leading principle in our plan of education is that the
student may apply himself to those branches of learning and science alone which
are absolutely

necessary to fit him for his destined
profession or occupation in life. One study does not imply the necessity of any
other, unless of one necessary to make it intelligible. But I am well convinced
of the utility and policy of conferring degrees and granting special
certificates." He then asks criticism of the following plan: First. The
degree of Bachelor of Arts (A.B) evidenced by a diploma in the Latin language,
for proficiency in English, the sciences and either Latin or Greek. Second. A
diploma in English certifying knowledge and progress in the arts and sciences,
to one omitting both the classics. He does not suggest a name for this
diploma.

These diplomas, as well as that of the Master's degree, should be signed
by the President of the Board and another Trustees. In addition to the
diplomas, certificates should be granted by the President of the University,
specially stating the progress of the student.

After Davie left the State in 1805, Caldwell acquired such commanding
influence as to assimilate this University to Princeton, his alma mater. Only
one diploma was granted, that of Bachelor of Arts (A.B.), both Latin and Greek
being essential to obtaining it, and this rule continued for many years. After
the re-organization in 1875, Davie's plan somewhat modified was re-introduced.
Both classics were still required for A.B., but a new degree of equal dignity
was adopted where one classic is omitted, that of Bachelor of Philosophy, while
if both classics are omitted, equivalent sciences being substituted, the degree
of Bachelor of Science (B.S) is conferred. Several great institutions, notably
Harvard and Cornell, now grant Bachelor of Arts, without requiring either
classic, and this institution has recently followed their example. All
universities grant certificates for special attainments.

It is remarkable that, after the University fell into the old Latin,
Greek and Mathematical curriculum, which prevailed through so many decades, the
scheme drawn by General Davie should have been substantially revived in our
days. As proving the truth of this I mention the large liberty of electing
studies, the not rigidly requiring Latin and Greek as necessary to graduation,
the elevation of Chemistry, Agriculture and the

Mechanic
Arts to a separate school, which can be solely attended, the requiring of
classical and mathematical students a moderate proficiency in science, and
making advanced work in these departments elective, the great prominence given
to the study of English literature and the attainment of a clear and graceful
style in speaking and writing, the other languages being expressly declared to
be auxiliary to this, the elevation of the French to equal rank with the
classics, and the allowance of the substitution of French for either Latin or
Greek. Indeed if we cut down our professorships to six, as was the case in
Davie's scheme, (President and five professors) it becomes apparent that the
changes of our day are mere centennial revivals, although not intentionally
so.

The plan of education of to-day is an evolution mainly by the initiation
of the Faculty, the Trustees as a matter of course ratifying their
recommendations. In 1795, however, the Trustees controlled this as well as the
other details of the institution, even prescribing text-books. Accordingly we
find that the scheme was soon so modified as to strike out Geography as a
required study in the Preparatory School, and Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws,
Vattel's Law of Nations and Hume's History of England in the University.
Astronomy was to be on the plan of Nicholson instead of Ferguson.

The difficulty of procuring books in the old times may be conjectured by
this fact, that the Trustees purchased as many as six sets of the prescribed
books, of others only three, to be rented to the students at a moderate
hire.

It was found impracticable to put the new scheme, requiring a President
and five professors, into full operation for two reasons: First, because of the
want of funds, and secondly, because the Trustees could not find a man
possessed of the necessary presidential gifts willing to take the place.
Accordingly Governor Samuel Ashe, President of the Board, and Messrs. Davie,
Willie Jones, Hogg, and Stone were appointed a committee to make inquiry for a
proper person to be president and to ascertain the terms on which he could be
procured. Three professors were then balloted for and the following were
unanimously chosen: Samuel E. McCorkle, Professor

of
Moral and Political Philosophy and History; Charles W. Harris, Professor of
Mathematics; Rev. David Ker, Professor of Languages. It was intended that Dr.
McCorkle should have charge as Presiding Professor, thus dethroning Dr.
Ker.

But an unexpected difficulty arose. The canny Scotch-Irishman foresaw
that, when the President should be chosen, he would lose the snug residence
provided for the chief executive. He therefore demanded that in case this
should happen his salary should be increased to the extent of the annual value
of the residence. To this the Trustees declined to accede and so Dr. Ker
continued in office until the following July, the University classes being
taught by Professors Ker and Harris, and the Preparatory School by Nicholas
Delveaux and Samuel Holmes, Delveaux having one of the higher classes in
Latin.

This rejection of the modest proposal of Dr. McCorckle was bitterly
resented by his friends, although soon forgiven by that excellent man. Gen.
John Steele, once a member of Congress and then first Comptroller of the
Treasury, wrote General Davie a letter couched in such severe terms as to break
the friendly relations between them. In the fall of 1799, after Davie's return
from his mission to France, he endeavored to renew their old friendship.
General Steele's answer, of which he kept a copy, shows that the sore was
unhealed. He said, "My letter was the dictate of what I considered at the
time, and still think, a just indignation for the ill treatment which Doctor
McCorckle received." . . . "I have no sons to educate, and my
nephew (son of Dr. McCorckle) is relieved of the humiliation of acquiring his
education at an institution whose outset was characterized by acts of
ingratitude and insult towards his father." As he begins the letter with
a dry "Sir," it is clear that resumption of friendly relations was
for awhile of a formal and business nature.

The six months' term ending July, 1796, witnessed many disorders among
the students, the nature of which we can only conjecture. This much is certain,
that there was dissatisfaction with Dr. Ker, that much against his inclination
he was constrained to send in his resignation, and the Trustees accepted it
under protest that he had not given six months' notice

as required by law. Professor Harris says that he was a man of talent, a
furious Republican, and we learn from other sources that he became an outspoken
infidel. Dr. Caldwell is authority also for the statement that another
professor, Holmes, at that time "embraced and taught the wildest
principles of licentiousness."

When we remember that Harris, an excellent character in other respects,
likewise had imbibed heterodox principles, we can easily see how a spirit of
lawlessness and defiance of authority became rampant in the young institution,
and how bitterly the Federalists among the students resented the violent
partisanship of the Presiding Professor.

The by-laws of the University were also extremely vexatious. The boys of
the Preparatory School, whom it became lawful to chastise as in other schools,
were allowed to have rooms in the University building, and the strictest
espionage, which might have been proper for their government, was enforced over
grown young men--many of them accustomed to the largest liberty at home.
The tutors of the Preparatory Department, sometimes undergraduates, were
required to sleep among the students to see that they kept their rooms in study
hours, to reprove and report them for every breach of the rules however
trivial. Moreover the professors were ordered to visit each room twice a day,
and monitors, one from each class, were expected to be spies on their fellows
and to report their misdemeanors and even peccadilloes. The attempt several
years afterwards to prevent the monitors from shirking this obligation led, as
will be seen, to a serious disruption of the institution.

The rules governing the conduct of the students while eating at Commons
were still more likely to produce angry feelings. The tutor must reprove one
complaining of the food unjustifiably in his opinion, and order one behaving
unseemly from the table. This indignity created wrath in the youth subjected to
such public insult, banished in disgrace from his food in presence of his
fellows.

While some of these rules and practices were from time to time
rectified, others continued up to the end of the old regime

in 1868. Their abolition in 1876 has been productive of
more kindly relations between Faculty and students and general improved conduct
in the institution.

Notwithstanding the disorders of the term, the Trustees who attended the
examinations in July, 1796, including, among others, Governor Samuel Ashe and
General Davie, certified that they were highly satisfactory and that many
showed the strongest evidences of industry and most promising talents. The
inspection began on Monday, the 11th of July, and was not finished until
Friday, the 15th, Governor Ashe and a considerable number of Trustees, in
addition to the committee, being present. The ladies did not vouchsafe their
cheering presence. It is recorded that "several classes and some of the
students received the marked approbation and applause of the Board and the
committee."

A clear view of the condition of the University at this second
Commencement is given in the report signed by General Davie and Wm. Hinton, of
Wake, the only Trustees who witnessed all the examinations:

The first or Senior class, consisting of six, were examined on Natural
Philosophy and Mathematics and were distinguished for accuracy and
progress.

The second, or Junior class of 12, were examined on Geography. Six
merited the marked approbation of the committee and were publicly
commended.

The third, or Sophomore class, consisted of 12; were examined on
Arithmetic and obtained approbation.

In Virgil and Cicero nine were examined. Those in Virgil did not give
satisfaction; those in Cicero were somewhat better.

The Rhetoric class did well. That in English Grammar, although numerous,
acquitted themselves with approbation, as did also the French class. The like
applause was given to the class in Cæsar and Sallust.

The classes in Nepos, Eutropius and six other inferior classes in the
Preparatory School were satisfactory.

The Committee suggest that it is best to leave out Geography from the
Preparatory School, "as most of the scholars will be too young to benefit
much by the study in so early a state."

The action of the Board of Trustees at this time indicates two fruitful
sources of trouble, the existence of the open grog-shops or taverns in the
village, and the claim of the students of the Grammar School that they were
only under the authority of their own tutors; and of the other students that
those tutors had no control over the University students. Ordinances were
passed prohibiting visiting of taverns without leave of a professor, vesting
the Preparatory teachers with disciplinary authority over all the students and
making them members of the Faculty, but without a vote. Six months later the
right to vote was given, but the rule that the two tutors should occupy the
same room in the University building was repealed.

At the same meeting the students were authorized to attend dancing
schools with the permission of the Faculty. A letter from Governor Spaight
certifies to the teaching abilities of a Mr. Perrin, a French gentleman.
"He does not undertake to teach the English dance, but the minuet and
French dance, such as cotillons, conges, etc." His terms were $2
per month, three afternoons each week. Davie wrote, "I am very desirous
that my sons should be taught to dance well. There are some French gentlemen at
New Bern who teach dancing in the most elegant style. They are really gentlemen
and unfortunate refugees from St. Domingo." Doubtless Mr. Perrin was one
of these refugees, as was Mr. Plunkett, who taught music in Mr. Mordecai's
school in Warrenton a few years afterwards, forced to flee from the atrocities
of the negroes in the island of Hayti, where they rose against the French,
reduced from affluence to poverty in a strange land.

In an unofficial letter Davie referred to another difficulty which seems
to have been rectified. "Serious, and I believe, well-grounded complaints
are made by the students against the Steward, but Messrs. Ker and Harris did
not think proper to mention them to the Board although they gave assurance to
the students that they would certainly do so." It should be remembered,
however, that his two sons, Hyder and Allen, who had been accustomed to
luxurious living, probably imparted this information, and we have not the
counter-statement of the professors. The North Carolina
Journal expressly states the contrary--that the Commons was eminently
satisfactory.

The Board of Trustees found that very few applications were made to them
for the vacancies in the Faculty. It became necessary to have a committee whose
duty it was to ascertain by correspondence or otherwise men of sufficient
learning willing to accept the positions, and with power to employ them. The
earliest committee was Judge Moore, General Davie, Willie Jones, David Stone
and Judge John Williams. Afterwards the committee consisted of Hugh Williamson,
Stone, Thomas H. Blount and Treasurer John Haygood.

HISTORY OF DAVID KER.

As Dr. David Ker was first professor, and also, as Presiding Professor,
the first executive of the University, it is proper to give his subsequent
history. He lived for several years in Lumberton, Robeson County, engaged in a
small way in merchandising; also pursuing the study of the law. Among his fast
friends were a family by the name of Willis, which emigrated to Mississippi,
and again became his neighbors and allies by marriage. From Lumberton in July,
1800, he emigrated to the Mississippi Territory, stopping several months with a
friend in Nashville, Tennessee. He settled finally at Washington in the
neighborhood of Natchez. He found the people, who had been injured by tobacco
and indigo, rejoicing in the profits of growing cotton. An industrious planter
in one year cleared the price of a negro. There was not a considerable school
in the territory, but many planters had private tutors. He describes the people
as largely composed of British sympathizers and "Revolutionary
Tories," but with a few Republicans. He avows to his correspondent,
Senator David Stone, his willingness to accept the office of Secretary of
State, the present incumbent, Col. Steele, being in a languishing state of
health, or of judge, as Judge Tilton contemplated resignation. He reminds
Senator Stone that his principles were in harmony with those of President
Jefferson. His pecuniary resources becoming extremely slender, his wife opened
a school for girls, in which he was an assistant. The Governor, W. C. C.
Claiborne, appointed him to the clerkship of the Superior Court of Adams
County, and soon afterwards he was made Sheriff. He then,

on the recommendation of Senator Stone, who had years before
nominated him as Professor of Humanity in our University, received from
President Jefferson the office of Territorial Judge. He is described as able
and impartial. His career was short, as he was cut off by disease contracted
while holding court in an open house without fire in severely cold weather. A
gentleman who knew him well describes him as a "man of fine education, a
classical scholar, well read in the principles of moral and natural philosophy,
of law and religion. His principles were well formed and matured and his moral
character of the best model, firm, stern, inflexible, unyielding." His
wife, whose faith in the Christian religion was steadfast, burnt all his
writings, lest they might contaminate others. The brave woman continued her
school and educated her children, who founded some of the leading families of
Mississippi and Louisiana, many of whose members hold honorable positions in
their communities. Since the war between the States which brought them nearly
all to financial ruin, the unmarried women of the family have shown the spirit
of their first American ancestors, and have devoted themselves with enthusiasm
to teaching.

Of the five children of Judge Ker, David died unmarried and Sarah (Mrs.
Cowden) left no child; Eliza married Mr. Rush Nutt, and has many living
grandchildren. One is Charles Clark, a prominent lawyer of San Jose,
California; another is Sargent Prentiss Nutt, once a lawyer of Washington, D.
C., now a planter near Natchez, at the old homestead, Longwood. Nearly all the
rest of the Nutt branch are cotton planters in Louisiana or Mississippi.

Martha (or Patsey) Ker married Mr. Wm. Terry, and left three daughters,
one of them still living on her plantation on the Yazoo, the widow of William
B. Prince. Another daughter married Evan Jeffries, a wealthy planter, and their
descendants are numerous.

A son of Judge Ker was John Ker, M.D., a surgeon in the Seminole war,
who was afterwards a successful cotton planter and member of the legislatures
of Louisiana and Mississippi. He had the religious faith of his mother, who
lived with him

until nearly 91 years of age. They are
both buried at the old homestead, Linden, a mile from Natchez, by the side of
Judge and David Ker, who were removed from their first resting place.

Dr. John Ker left six children, all of whom are dead except the two
youngest, Wm. Henry and Mary S. Ker, who reside in Natchez. The oldest son,
David, was a lawyer in Louisiana and then a sugar planter. Besides daughters,
David has a son, J. Brownson Ker, a lawyer in New York City. Two of David Ker's
daughters are successful teachers in the same city.

The second son, John Ker, was a lawyer for awhile and then a cotton
planter. He served throughout the Civil War as Captain of a Louisiana company,
was captured at Vicksburg. After the war he resumed the profession of the law.
His son, Wm. B. Ker, is manager of a large sugar estate in Louisiana. One of
his daughters is the wife of Hon. Murphy J. Foster, once Governor of
Louisiana.

Dr. Ker's third son, Lewis Baker Ker, left two sons and four daughters,
all living in Southern Louisiana.

The fourth son of Dr. John Ker is still living, Wm. Henry Ker of
Natchez. He left the Junior class of Harvard to join the Confederate army and
served throughout as a cavalry soldier in the army of Northern Virginia. After
the war he undertook cotton planting, but not finding it profitable, adopted
the profession of teaching and has pursued it with enthusiasm and success. For
several years he has been Principal of the Natchez White Public Schools,
President of the State Board of Education, and teacher in and once conductor of
the Peabody Summer Normals in Mississippi. Harvard lately conferred on him the
degree of A.B. At Harvard he was the stroke oar of the Harvard crew. He married
Miss Josephine Chamberlain, and they have a son, John, living and two
daughters, one of whom married Mr. Richard Butler, a sugar planter of
Louisiana.

Dr. John Ker's younger daughter is still living, a fine specimen of the
noble class of "Old Maids," Mary S. Ker, who in addition to her
professional duties, cared for two generations of orphaned nieces and great
nieces. She has been steadily

engaged in teaching since
1871, with the exception of a year and a half spent traveling in Europe. She
has a place in the faculty of Stanton College, a female school in Natchez. It
is to her courtesy that I am indebted for much of my information concerning the
family of Dr. David Ker.

I copy the modest inscriptions on the tombstones of the first professor
and the first lady who ever lived in Chapel Hill.

DAVID KER. Born in Ireland February, 1758.Died in
Mississippi January 21, 1805.

MARY KER. Born in Ireland30th March, 1757. Died in Natchez
30th November, 1847.

CHARLES W. HARRIS, PRESIDING PROFESSOR; JOSEPH CALDWELL,
PROFESSOR.

It can well be imagined that, during the first two terms, or sessions as
they were called until 1818, the scheme of studies laid down by the committee
of which Dr. Corckle was chairman, was not closely adhered to. The chaotic
state of education in the State rendered rigid classification impossible.

In consequence of the retirement of Dr. Ker, in the summer of 1796, the
duties of Presiding Professor, in addition to instruction in Mathematics, were
placed upon the strong but reluctant shoulders of Mr. Harris and there rested
until his resignation half a year afterwards much against the wishes of the
Trustees. While so engaged he gave to his work undivided attention, grieving
however over his abstinence from his law books. Whenever possible he mounted
his horse, and, riding to Hillsboro, enjoyed refined society in the families of
the Hoggs, Norwoods, Webbs, and others. Under his management the students
steadily improved, and at the examination in December showed such proficiency
that the visiting Trustees published a testimonial thereof.

As Mr. Harris had given notice that he would retire after the close of
the term in December, it became necessary to take measures to supply his place.
He himself, loving the University, took much interest in the question, and was
freely consulted by the Trustees. Remembering the character and reputation

for ability of Joseph Caldwell, who graduated with
highest honors at Princeton in the class preceding his, and learning of his
subsequent success as a tutor, he confidently recommended him for the Chair of
Mathematics. It was a striking proof of the strong impression he made on the
eminent men who composed the Board of Trustees, that they unanimously elected
his nominee. Caldwell had been engaged in teaching mathematics at Princeton,
was only twenty-three years of age, but of matured intellectual strength. If it
shall be thought that the Trustees were rash in calling so young a man to so
responsible a post, it should be remembered that they had a very narrow range
of choice. The historian, Dr. Hugh Williamson, then residing in New York,
commissioned by the Board to enquire for persons competent, wrote, "The
salary offered (about $600) is so small as to preclude any chance of
inducing any respectable man of learning to remove to a Southern State, where,
as they all believe, the chances of health are greatly diminished." He
says that: "men of moderate ability expect to make more money in other
business than teaching, hence capable teachers are only among the clergy. The
Professorship of Mathematics in the College of New Jersey (Princeton) has been
vacant some time for want of a capable man. It is unfortunate that people
measure salaries by the inflated price of provisions and the flood of real or
fictitious money. $2.50 for a bushel of wheat, half a dollar in a tavern
for breakfast, $1.25 a day for a common laborer, are too high to
continue. When Europe is revisited by Peace, prices will fall and then we can
employ teachers on moderate terms." He advises that tutors be engaged if
those worthy of being called professors cannot be had.

By request of the Trustees, Harris apprised Mr. Caldwell that the Chair
of Mathematics was open to him. Before deciding, the latter asked for a full
statement of the condition and resources of the University, which was at once
given minutely and accurately. The following is the substance of this
answer:

There were about one hundred students "on the
establishment," of whom about sixty were in the Preparatory Department,
leaving about forty in the University proper. Of the

latter six were in the Moral Philosophy class and fifteen studied Mathematics.
The Geography and Arithmetic classes had about ten students each, the Latin
class about the same, and there were five or six in Greek. Each tutor in the
Grammar School had about thirty. "We imitate," he writes,
"Nassau Hall in the conduct of our affairs, as much as circumstances will
admit. The site at Chapel Hill was selected because of its healthiness. The
expense of clothing is dearer than at Princeton. Our diet at Commons is
preferable to yours and at the low rate of $40 a year." The
buildings already completed are one wing 98 feet long, containing sixteen
rooms, "an elegant and large house for the President," with
outhouses, the Steward's House, Kitchen, etc. The buildings to be erected are a
wing similar to the other, a Chapel 50 feet by 40, and a large three-storied
house 115 feet long and 56 feet broad. The Chapel is contracted for to cost
$3,000. The Trustees can realize $15,000 more, with which they
resolve to commence the large building as soon as they can find an undertaker.
The Treasurer informed him (the writer) that the funds, including what was not
at once available, could be stated at $30,000. The University labors
more at the present for the want of good teachers than anything else. If the
buildings were completed and all the professorships filled there would be 200
students. The Professorship of Mathematics is worth $500 a year and in a
short time will be $600. The society in the neighborhood is very
uncultivated. When there is a little leisure a ride of 12 or 14 miles will find
agreeable company, and the seminary is occasionally visited by the most
respectable gentlemen in the State. The newness of the University causes things
to be in an unsettled state, but he expected that in a short time that a
situation here would be as agreeable and as profitable as any of a like kind in
the Union. Mr. Ker left much against his will, and he himself would not wish to
leave but for the intention to devote himself to the profession of the law. Our
education at Princeton, he says, was shamefully and inexcusably deficient in
experimental Philosophy. He expects from London a small apparatus in October.
He advises that Caldwell should visit Philadelphia and learn the use of the
different kinds of electrical

machines, air-pumps,
telescope, microscope, camera obscura, magic-lantern, quadrants, sextants and
whatever else may be found useful. He would often have appeared ridiculous in
his own eyes if he had not gotten a smattering of experimental Philosophy by
visiting Williamsburg (William and Mary College) in Virginia.

This fair statement of our University situation procured the acceptance
by the Princeton tutor of the position tendered him. His determination may have
been aided by the fact that the College of New Jersey was passing through a
crisis, the cause of which is not disclosed. In a letter to Davie he stated
that Dr. McLean, the Professor of Chemistry, from Glasgow, Scotland, whose
salary was paid out of the private pockets of the Trustees, was in the notion
of applying for the same chair in North Carolina. Moreover, Brother Smith
1

1 Samuel Stanhope Smith, D.D., President Princeton
College.

would like to have proposals for a change and would be
willing to make it if he could have direction of the plan of buildings, and
their environs. Caldwell significantly adds, "I do not now hesitate to
say that so far as the reputation of this college depends upon its immediate
professors, you have an opportunity of transferring it in a great measure to
the University of your State."

But alas! our Trustees did not have the funds adequate to enable them to
embrace this promising opportunity.

Joseph Caldwell, the new Professor of Mathematics, was a son of a
physician of the same name, of Scotch-Irish descent, a resident of Lamington,
New Jersey, born April 21, 1773, two days after his father's death. His mother
was Rachel Harker, daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman of note, whose wife was
a daughter of a Huguenot refugee. Mrs. Rachel Caldwell was a woman of rare
energy and discretion, instilling into her son good principles, and under many
privations in troublous times securing for him such educational advantages as
enabled him to graduate at Princeton in 1791 at the age of 19. In recognition
of his superior scholarship he was awarded the honor of delivering the Latin
Salutatory.

After leaving Princeton, Caldwell entered at once on his life-work as a
teacher, for a short while having charge of a school

for
young children, then for a year or so being usher, or assistant, in a classical
academy at Elizabethtown. His intelligence and faithfulness were so conspicuous
in this position that in April, 1795, he was chosen to be tutor in his alma
mater, having for his associate and life-long friend, John Henry Hobart.

While performing their duties as teachers both these tutors were
pursuing theological studies. They soon parted, one going North to become
famous as Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, the other coming South to
become eminent as a preacher in the Presbyterian Church, exerting still wider
influence as Professor and President of a State University.

Caldwell was licensed to preach the gospel while at Princeton by the
Presbytery of New Brunswick. Afterwards, when on his way to Chapel Hill, he
stopped in Philadelphia and preached in the church of the celebrated divine,
Dr. Ashbel Green. His sermon made such a strong impression on the audience that
he was virtually offered the charge of an important congregation. Dr. Green
prevented any possibility of his yielding to this tempting invitation,
extremely attractive to a young man of twenty-three years of age, by saying
abruptly, "Mr. Caldwell is on his way to Carolina and to Carolina he is
certainly to go. To speak of other places will be in vain." The splendid
career of usefulness pursued by his young friend, is proof of the pious wisdom
of this great man in inculcating respect for the sanctity of a contract.

On September 6, 1796, Professor Harris wrote to Caldwell expressing the
great pleasure the tidings of his acceptance gives him, regretting that Dr.
Smith is not agreeably situated at Princeton, and promising to suggest to our
Trustees to endeavor to make his removal to this University profitable and
agreeable. He advised relinquishment of the idea of coming by water. To travel
by public stage would cost $50, before reaching Petersburg, 170 miles
from Chapel Hill. The best plan is to purchase a small, but good, horse and a
single chair, (i. e. two-wheeled sulky, holding one person). A half-worn chair,
if well made, would answer the purpose. With this traveling would be as
expeditious as on horseback. In the chair-box could be carried many
necessaries. This could be made

cheap and healthful, and
would occupy about thirty days. By adhering to the post-route through the
cities of Washington, Alexandria, passing near Mount Vernon, Richmond,
Petersburg, etc., much entertainment and knowledge of geography would be
gained. The loss on re-sale of the horse would not be considerable. Let Mr.
Caldwell fill his trunk with one or two pieces of linen, stockings, shoes,
broadcloth, and whatever clothing will be needed for a year, as these things
are dearer here than in Philadelphia and often not procurable. Trunks should be
sent by water to Petersburg, Virginia, in the care of Grain and Anderson, who
will pay charges and forward them on to Hillsboro at once.

A more striking contrast between the old time and the new can hardly be
shown. The solitary professor journeying in all kinds of weather in the open
air, occupying over a month, and trusting his baggage by a devious and
uncertain route to a point 12 miles from Chapel Hill, while the modern
professor makes the trip in comfort, even luxury, his baggage accompanying him,
in less than twenty-four hours, and does not have a broken-down horse and a
worn-out vehicle on his hands at the end of his journey.

Even before the advent of railroad transportation the rapidity of travel
greatly increased. In June, 1821, Rev. Wm. Hooper wrote to his wife from New
York City: "It is astonishing to think that I should have left you Friday
morning and on the following Tuesday be in New York, 600 miles distant."
His route was first to Petersburg or Richmond, thence down the river to
Norfolk, thence by sea to his destination. I remark in passing that the good
doctor offered to preach on Sunday but the Captain, ascertaining that his
passengers objected, declined to allow him.

Fortunately Dr. Caldwell kept copies of many of his letters, and by the
kindness of his step-son and executor these are in the archives of the
University. He had, according to the fashion of the day, quite a diffuse style,
and I take the liberty of giving often the substance of what appears to be of
historic value.

"Rev. Sir" soon after his reaching Chapel
Hill. He says, "I arrived on the 31st October (1796) and on the second
day after entered on the business of the class. The University is almost
entirely in infancy, cut out of the woods, one building of the smaller kind is
finished. The Trustees are endeavoring to get an undertaker for the largest,
115 by 56 feet. The foundation of the Chapel is laid but the completion is
uncertain, as the mason and his negroes have spent the favorable fall in
raising the foundation to the surface of the ground. According to agreement it
must be finished by the 1st day of July next. The Trustees offer for the
completion of the large building 10,000 or 12,000 pounds ($20 or
$24,000). The President's house is well finished. It is one hundred
yards from the nearest building of the University.

Soon after his arrival he made a trip to Raleigh. "The Legislature
in numbers appeared respectable. General Davie stands foremost and an almost
unrivaled leader in every capital enterprise." He spent the greater part
of two evenings with Davie and pronounced him "a man of good abilities
and active in every measure for promoting the honor and interest of the
State." "In the Legislature he seems like a parent struggling for
the happiness and welfare of his children. No doubt he frequently finds them
refractory."

The youthful professor, having had a few days view of this State of over
50,000 square miles, felt qualified to tell all about its people. He said,
"The State appears to be swarming with lawyers. It is almost the only
profession for which parents educate their children. Religion is so little in
vogue, that it affords no temptation to undertake its cause. In New Jersey it
had a public respect and support. In North Carolina, and particularly in the
part east of Chapel Hill, every one believes that the way of rising to
respectability is to disavow as often and as publicly as possible the leading
doctrines of the Scriptures. They are bugbears, very well fitted to scare the
ignorant and weak into obedience to the laws; but the laws of morality and
honor are sufficient to regulate the conduct of men of letters and cultivated
reasons. One reason, why religion is so scouted from the most influential part
of society, is that it is taught only

by ranters, with
whom it seems to consist only in the powers of their throats and the wildness
and madness of their gesticulations and distortions. If it could be regularly
taught by men of prudence, real piety and improved talents it would claim the
support of the people."

It is amazing that a man of sense, as Caldwell certainly was, should
have expressed such positive convictions when he had so little means of forming
a judgment. A letter from his friend, John Henry Hobart, then Tutor at
Princeton, gives us further insight into his views of things at Chapel Hill and
elsewhere. Hobart was pleased to see that "Caldwell's disagreeable
feelings were wearing off. The country must have presented a barren and gloomy
prospect, and the manners of the lower class congenial to it, except where the
noise of intemperate mirth gave liveliness to the dull scene. I have understood
that in Virginia especially the rich planters are men of hospitality and
polished manners. It is to be hoped that the rays from your University, the Sun
of Science, will illuminate the darkness of society. Your Faculty seems to
constitute a motley group. Presbyterians and Arians, infidels and Roman
Catholics. The age of reason has surely come.
Superstition and bigotry are buried in one common grave. Philosophy and charity
begin to bless the people."

"I expected something better from Harris. I did not expect that he
would become the disciple of infidelity. I feel for your situation thus
deprived of religious conversation and society, exposed to the insults of the
profane and scoffs of the infidel. Your resolution to stand firm is worthy of
your profession. Providence seems to have placed you in a position where you
will need much firmness, but where you may do much good. It seems as if you
were called to proclaim the glorious truths of the Gospel, where they have not
been known, or known only to the contemned." Hobart then tells of the
losses of the Federalists in Pennsylvania and hopes that by "the aid of
Webster's and Fenno's papers you will be able to make good Federalists of some
of your North Carolina friends." This Webster was the author of the
Unabridged Dictionary who once edited a political journal.

It appears from a letter by Thomas Y. How to Caldwell that the latter
had a conversation with Davie on the Evidences of Christianity. He gave to How
a summary of his arguments, which were pronounced, judicious and forcible.
Nothing is said of the impression made on the mind of Davie. How is alarmed at
the progress of infidelity. He believes that the French government sends
emissaries to the United States to convert the people to Deism in order to make
them lose their Republican virtue, and then France by intrigue and bribery can
control their policy.

We have Davie's impressions of Caldwell, formed after a six months'
acquaintance. "The more I know Caldwell the more I am pleased with him. I
think him a respectable character and well qualified to fill the Mathematical
and Natural Philosophy chairs. Perhaps he has not studied attentively Moral
Philosophy and the Belles Lettres, but I believe him possessed of talent
sufficient to attain to any proficiency in any science that may be necessary. I
am very sorry that he has notified his determination to leave us. He seems to
think that his constitution is too weak to undergo the anxiety and fatigue of
the President's place." It will be seen that this intention was
abandoned.

Mr. Caldwell, after resting only one day, began his duties as professor
on the 2d of November, 1796, Harris having the duties of Presiding Professor.
When in accordance with his notification the latter's resignation took effect,
Caldwell, with great reluctance, succeeded him in the management, Rev. Samuel
A. Holmes, who had been Tutor, being elevated to the Professorship of
Languages, W. A. Richards being teacher of French and German. The Preparatory
Department was under the management of Nicholas Delvaux, assisted by
Richards.

I give briefly the career of the excellent Professor Harris after his
leaving the University. He settled in Halifax, one of the court towns, arriving
there April 10, 1797. He was spared the usual dreary waiting of a young
practitioner. General Davie was elected Governor in the fall of the same year,
and in the next was sent, together with Chief Justice Ellsworth and Van Murray,
our minister to the Hague, to negotiate with Napoleon

for peace with France. He intrusted the bulk of his practice to Harris, so that
the public soon learned his worth. In 1800 he was elected a Trustee of the
University, and being placed on the Visiting Committee aided in conducting the
examinations in June of that year. His legal abilities were so generally
recognized that he was urged by his Federalist friends to allow his name to go
before the General Assembly for the office of Judge, but he declined on account
of bad health. Hoping for relief he made a voyage to the West Indies in 1803,
but finding no benefit, returned and died January 15, 1804, at the residence of
his brother, Robert Wilson Harris, in Sneedsboro, on the Pee Dee in the county
of Anson. Before his death he returned to the faith of his father, an elder in
the Presbyterian church at Poplar Tent. He was agreeable with his friends,
reserved among strangers, scrupulously truthful and honorable, an assiduous and
accomplished scholar. Seldom has pulmonary consumption carried off a more
promising man.

Under the judicious management of Caldwell the spring term of 1797 moved
on harmoniously and prosperously to all outward seeming, though we learn from
his letters that he was not pleased with some of his associates.

The cares incident to the office of Acting President so weighed upon Mr.
Caldwell that, as Davie wrote, he avowed his intention to leave the
institution. The Trustees, however, induced him to remain by the election at
the close of 1797 of James Smiley Gillaspie as Professor of Natural Philosophy,
to be also Presiding Professor.

The examination of July 18, 1797, was quite numerously attended by the
Trustees, there being present Governor Benjamin Williams, Judge John Williams,
James Hogg, Adlai Osborne, Willie Jones and Walter Alves. Their report was most
favorable. "The Professors and Tutors deserve praise and thanks, and the
students approbation and applause, and both were accordingly given by the
Trustees." "Rosy health appeared in the countenances of the
students, a few boys excepted, who came from the eastern parts of the
State." "The complaints which have existed against the Steward have
entirely subsided."

We have a letter from James Hogg to General Davie, explaining that the
duty of attending the Board of Trustees and the necessity of leaving for home
on the fifth day caused a too meagre attention to the examination of the
classes of the Preparatory Department. He reports that "Mr. Delvaux's
classes on Sallust, Cæsar, Cornelius Nepos, Eutropius and two classes on
Corderius seemed to me to be taught with accuracy. It is true that they had
been prepared, but each student drew by lot the chapter or section which he was
to read. His students in the French Grammar were satisfactory. He has a class
in the Latin Grammar which was not examined."

"Mr. Richard's classes on Telemaque and Gil Blas, French exercises
and in French Grammar made a satisfactory examination. A large class on the
common rules of Arithmetic and practice and a large class in English Grammar in
general performed well." There were two classes in reading and spelling
but there was not time to test the proficiency of the students. Davie wrote
that he feared that sufficient attention is not paid to reading and spelling.
He has heard complaint of the school in this regard, especially in the
northeast section of the State.

"A man of prominent character is necessary in the Grammar
School." He is sorry to hear of the differences between Delvaux and
Richards. They can be met by appointment of an additional Tutor. Robert Moore
is recommended, also Archibald D. Murphey, from Caswell. Moore would probably
teach for his board and tuition. Davie adds, "It is so difficult to find
men for our purpose tolerably well qualified, that I am very sorry that Mr.
Delvaux is to leave us. It is not likely that we shall meet with his
equal."

We are informed in this report that Caldwell, in addition to his duties
in the University proper, taught about twenty pupils in the Preparatory
Department in reading.

Hogg's explanation of the chapters, to be examined on, having been
notified in advance to the students reminds me that when seven years of age I
was at the school of Mrs. Harriet Bobbitt in Louisburg; she, apparently as a
matter of course, gave to the pupils the words which we were to spell at the
public examinations by the Trustees. The result was more favorable

to the accuracy of the spelling than to the moral lesson
inculcated. I very much fear that similar deceptions were not uncommon in
"the good old days." It is remarkable that there are in the
archives of the University two valedictory orations in Caldwell's handwriting,
and a third endorsed as copied by E. J. Osborne for him, which seems to imply
that he supplied members of the graduating classes with productions similar to
those which he had listened to with tearful eyes at Princeton. His unbending
rectitude of principle leads to the conclusion that the matter was well
understood by the students and the public. I conjecture that similar deceptions
are not uncommon in our day. I have been occasionally requested by pupils of
distant schools to supply them with "original speeches," one of
them naming the subject--"Love, the Causes of Love, the Effects of
Love," etc., but I have invariably declined.

THE PRINCIPALSHIP OF GILLASPIE.

The new Professor of Natural Philosophy, James Smiley Gillaspie, as he
spelt his name, was honored with the title of Principal of the University,
instead of Presiding Professor. He was son of John Gillaspie, doubtless a near
relative of Col. Daniel Gillaspie, of the Revolution, and Senator from
Guilford. His home was at Martinsville, a village which took the place of old
Guilford Court-House. By inducing him to assume executive duties and by
adopting a resolution endorsing Caldwell's course, the Trustees induced the
latter to accept the Chair of Mathematics. He voluntarily agreed to teach
French in the Preparatory Department, for which an allowance of $30 was
made.

The first year of Gillaspie's administration was fairly successful. His
colleagues were Caldwell and Holmes in the University, and Richards and William
Edwards Webb, a promising member of the Senior class, in the Grammar
School.

EARLY DONATIONS--GOVERNOR SMITH.

I have chronicled the fact that Governor Smith offered to the University
warrants for 20,000 acres of soldiers' land warrants at the first meeting of
the Board in 1789, and handed over the warrants at the second meeting in
1790.

The munificence of Colonel, afterwards Governor and General Smith
brought, however, no present funds into the treasury. The warrants were for
lands located in Obion County, in the extreme northwest of Tennessee. By the
treaty of Hopewell in 1785 the United States ceded this territory to the
Chickasaw Indians. In 1810 one of the most terrific earthquakes which ever
afflicted the Mississippi Valley turned portions of the land into lakelets. It
was not until twenty-five years afterwards that a sale was effected, which
realized $14,000. Nevertheless it was certainly a graceful act to name
our library building Smith Hall in his honor, although it was delayed over half
a century. John Harvard gained immortality by a legacy of less than
$4,000 to the college at Newton, afterwards Cambridge, in Massachusetts.
I feel it a duty to give the man, who made a much more munificent donation to
our infant institution, this special notice.

Benjamin Smith was a man of force. In the Revolutionary struggle he was
a special aid to Washington in the masterly retreat from Long Island. He
partook of the glory in defeating Parker's fleet at Charleston. In
contemplation of war with England or France, when his great chief was
President, he was made Brigadier-General of militia. When a struggle with
France was imminent, during the Presidency of elder Adams, the entire militia
force of Brunswick volunteered after a fiery speech from him. In 1810, when the
troubles with England were culminating he was made General of the county
forces. He was fifteen times State Senator from his county of Brunswick. The
capital of the county was called in his honor Smithville. With forgetfulness of
the old hero and hankering after modern sheckels, the name has been changed to
Southport. His memory is still perpetuated not alone by the gratitude of the
University, but by the name of the bleak island, which far out in the ocean
forms the dangerous projection of shifting sand, called by the ancient mariner
in his terror Promontorium Tremendum, or Cape
Fear.

As he advanced in years Governor Smith lost his health by high living
and his fortune by too generous suretyship. He became irascible and prone to
resent fancied slights. His

tongue became venomous to
opponents. He once spoke with undeserved abusiveness of Judge Alfred Moore, and
the insult was avenged by one of the members of the Assembly from Brunswick,
Judge Moore's son Maurice, who next to Hinton James was one of the first
students of the University. The duel was fought on the 28th June, 1805, in
South Carolina, not far from the seaside, where then stood the Boundary House,
the line running thro' the centre of the hall entrance. When North Carolina
officers sent in pursuit reached the house they were unable to cross the
imaginary line into the south side of the house, where the duellists and their
friends, triumphant under the jurisdiction of South Carolina, were laughing
over their fruitless chase. The second of Captain Maurice Moore was his cousin,
Major Duncan Moore, while General Smith was attended by General Joseph Gardner
Swift, whose "Memoirs," published only for private circulation and
re-published by the University in the James Sprunt Historical Monographs, is of
much interest. At the second fire the bullet of Moore entered the side of
Smith, and although not fatal was long the cause of pain and discomfort. When
some years after his death his bones were exhumed for removal to another
cemetery, the "vengeful lead" was found among them.

It is sad to relate that in his old age he was arrested by the attorney
of the University, who, Smith alleged, was his personal enemy, and held for a
security debt; but on learning the fact he was released by order of the
Trustees with promptness. Even after his death, it is said, his body was
pursued by hungry creditors, a ghastly power then allowed by law, and his
friends were forced to bury it in the darkness of night in an obscure spot,
where the money ghouls could not find it.

GENERAL PERSON.

About the time of the construction of the old East, the old Chapel, or
Person Hall, was begun. When funds ran low the hearts of the Trustees were
gladdened by the gift of $1,050 in "hard money," said to
have been paid in shining silver dollars, for the purpose of finishing it, by
General Thomas Person, of Granville. He was an old bachelor, who, not having
children

of his own, felt impelled to help educate those
of others. General Person was a wealthy planter of Granville County. He was a
sympathizer with the Regulators in their wrongs, but did not approve their
overt resistance. He was an active patriot of the Revolution--a delegate
to the first assembly of the people at New Bern in 1774, which met in defiance
of the prohibition of the royal Governor. He appeared again as a member of the
Provincial Congress at Hillsboro in 1775, and of the Congress at the same place
in the spring of 1776, by which the State was organized for war, and which led
the van in authorizing the members of the Continental Congress to vote for
independence. He was one of the stout patriots who amid the storms of war
framed a constitution for free North Carolina at Halifax in December, 1776. He
was the second named of the large and able committee which reported the
Constitution for the consideration of the body, and did their work so well that
no changes were made in it. Nor was he trusted as a legislator only. He was one
of the Provincial Council, which constituted the Provisional government of the
State prior to the Constitution, and of the Council of Safety, which was its
successor. He was one of the six Brigadier-Generals of the first military
establishment. He was a member of the House of Commons during the entire war,
and either as Senator or Commoner represented Granville County in the General
Assembly for sixteen years. He always enjoyed the esteem and confidence of our
people. He was always a fast friend of education and of the University. He was
among the influential men who formed the first Board of Trustees. He attended
the first meeting of the Trustees in 1790 at Fayetteville. For many years the
"Old Chapel" was the place of divine worship and of all public
meetings. For some time the two societies held therein their sessions. It
witnessed the Commencement exercises and conferring the diplomas. Until after
our great Civil War these documents bore on their face in sonorous Latin the
antiquated words, "in Aula
Personica." The grateful Trustees directed that a slab be
inserted in front of the building with the following inscription:

BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, THIS
MONUMENT IS ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS PERSON,
WHO EVINCED HIS PATRIOTISM AND LOVE OF LEARNING BY A PECUNIARY
DONATION WITH WHICH THIS CHAPEL WAS COMPLETED IN THE YEAR 179--
IN HONOUR OF WHICH MUNIFICENCE IT IS DISTINGUISHED BY THE NAME OF
PERSON HALL. OBIIT AN. 1 AET.

This pious work was never executed.

SUBSCRIPTIONS.

On January 9, 1793, Willie Jones and Wm. R. Davie, the leaders of the
Republican and Federalist parties in the eastern section, in politics opposed,
but personal friends, issued a joint appeal for subscriptions, stating that
they were clearly of the opinion that the liberal education of youth must tend
to promote the prosperity and happiness of the people. They hope that
"the gentlemen of the county of Halifax, on an occasion so interesting to
the rising generation, when the gentlemen of the county of Orange had given
near $2,000, will not suffer any county in the State to exceed Halifax
in supporting an institution of such vast and general utility." The
following is a list of donations from the Judicial Districts:

Total Hillsborough District

$1614.80

Total Halifax District

1608.

Total Wilmington District

2222.

Total Newbern District

950.

Total Fayetteville District

170.

Salisbury

158.50

Grand Total

$6,723.30

In the appendix will be found the list of names--a veritable roll
of honor. The subscriptions run all the way from $5 to $200. Wm.
Cain, of Orange, Alfred Moore, of Brunswick, soon to be a Judge, and Walter
Alves, of Orange, were the

largest subscribers. The
latter, however, added his own donation to a legacy willed by his father-in-law
in order to make up the $200. He was a son of James Hogg, changing his
name at his father's request. The $100 subscribers were Jesse Nevill, of
Orange; Wm. R. Davie, Willie Jones and Nicholas Long, of Halifax; John Burgwin,
of Wilmington; Governor Spaight, Joseph Leech, Daniel Carthy, George Pollock,
and Wilson Blount, of New Bern. In the lists will be found ancestors of many of
the leading citizens of the State and friends of the University, such as the
Spaights, Donnells, Bryans, Davises, Blounts, Greens, Osbornes, Halls, Moores,
Ashes, Kenans, Burgwins, Wrights, Toomers, Joneses, Cutlars, Jameses, Hills,
Dudleys, Sneads, Waddells, Haywoods, Alstons, Malletts, Longs, Whitakers,
Smiths, Watters, Hooper, Strayhorns, Renchers, Johnstons, and many others, not
couting those on the female side.

It is particularly gratifying to see the name of Wm. Bingham, the
founder of the distinguished family of teachers in our State, who gave
$20, a large sum for a teacher, then a recent settler among us. Rev. Dr.
Samuel E. McCorkle showed his interest by procuring $42 from his
congregation. The Central Benevolent Association, of Iredell County, subscribed
$100 for the purchase of books and apparatus, and Rev. James Hall, D.D.,
the Preacher-Captain in the Revolution, out of his meagre salary sent
$5.

It is evident that two or more of the agents procuring subscriptions
neglected their duty. It is impossible to believe that so many well-to-do
counties around Albemarle Sound and in the valleys of the Tar, the Neuse above
Craven, the Pee Dee, the Catawba, the Yadkin, and other rivers, would have been
totally unrepresented in this list if they had been properly canvassed. We
should give all the more praise to James Hogg, W. R. Davie, Richard Dobb
Spaight, Alfred Moore and Wm. H. Hill for successful activity. Wm. Barry Grove
would have undoubtedly gathered a larger sum if he had not been engaged in his
congressional duties.

The foregoing subscriptions were not, however, payable at once, but
according to the dates fixed by the donors--mostly in one or two
years.

Besides these, were subscriptions of $460 in Wake and $80
in Rowan, under the provision in the charter authorizing donors of $20
to have a four years' free scholarship. In 1796 the Trustees cancelled all
these. It should be added that the first donor of apparatus for instruction was
Alfred Moore, then called Colonel, a pair of globes; and next to him was
Richard Bennehan.

MAJOR GERRARD.

In 1798 the Trustees were gladdened by the bequest of valuable lands and
land warrants in Tennessee by a worthy Revolutionary officer, a Lieutenant in
the Fifth Battalion of the Continental line, whose first Colonel was Edward
Buncombe. His name was Charles Gerrard, a native of Carteret County, but at his
death a citizen of Edgecombe, married, though childless. He was described in
the North Carolina Journal "as a soldier brave,
active and persevering, and justly admired as a citizen, husband, friend and
neighbor." His rank as Lieutenant entitled him to a grant of 2,560 acres
which he located in 1783 at the junction of Yellow Creek with Cumberland River,
not far below the city of Nashville.

This tract, the fruit of his toil and suffering and blood, he regarded
with peculiar affection, and when he bequeathed it he requested in his will
that it should perpetually remain the property of the University. For
thirty-five years the Trustees regarded this wish as sacred.

The spelling given is according to the original will of Major Gerrard.
Judges Gaston and Badger, in reporting the hereafter mentioned resolutions,
adopt it. Afterwards the name was wrongly confounded with that of the founder
of Girard College.

In addition to this tract, which was called his "service
right," Gerrard bequeathed warrants which he had purchased amounting to
11,364 acres. The story of the sale of these will be told hereafter.

THE MAIN, OR SOUTH BUILDING.

I think it best to continue the history of the efforts for the
construction of the early buildings, although departing from chronological
order.

THE SOUTH, OR MAIN BUILDING.

The first Trustees planned to have one long building facing the East, as
Orientalization was the fashion in architecture. From its centre as I have
mentioned stretched a broad avenue to Piney (or Point, as it was then called)
Prospect. From want of funds the northern wing only was first erected. What is
now called the Old West Building was intended to be the southern wing of the
larger central structure. The whole was to be exactly similar to the Insane
Asylum which overlooks Raleigh from Dix Hill. The design was to finish first
the northern wing, afterwards called the East, and now Old East, then the Main
Building and finally the north wing. This explanation somewhat excuses the sale
of lots on the north side of the campus. The University was to have a double
front eastward and westward.

When Professors Harris and Caldwell entered the Faculty, with such
influential Princetonians as McCorkle, Davie, and Stone in the Board of
Trustees, this plan gave way to the orthodox idea of a quadrangle, which in
England and Scotland is, with more or less efficiency, a veritable prison for
detention of students at night; and the name "Main" in course of
time gave way to South, the name "Wing" to East, and the University
now fronted north. About 1830, under the influence of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, an
abortive attempt was made to turn the front to the south, and hence the useless
south porch to Gerrard Hall.

In 1798, emboldened by the donation of Major Gerrard, the Trustees
concluded to begin the erection of the Main Building, and the cornerstone was
laid. Its walls reached the height of a story and a half, and then remained
roofless for years.

The cornerstone was laid, as had been that of the Old East with Masonic
ceremonies. The following is the entry on the Journals of the Grand Lodge
located in Raleigh:

"On the 14th of April, 1798, by order of its most worshipful Grand
Master, a special Grand Lodge was called at the University of North Carolina
for the express purpose of laying the foundation and cornerstone of the
principal college of that seminary and to join the Trustees of the University
in one ejaculation to heaven and the Great Architect of the universe for the

auspices of His eternal goodness and for the prosperity
of learning, wisdom and virtue of that college."

LOTTERIES.

In order to complete the Main Building the Trustees obtained from the
Legislature of 1801 the liberty of raising, by one or more lotteries, not
exceeding 2,000 pounds ($4,000). The public conscience of that day saw
no harm in calling in the aid of the Goddess Fortuna for promoting religion,
education, or any other desirable end. The following was the plan of the
University lottery No. 1: There were 1,500 tickets, costing $5 each. Of
these 531 bore prizes and 969 blanks. There was one prize each for
$1,500, $500, $250, $200, two of $100 each,
five of $50 each, ten of $10 each, and five hundred of $5
each. The $250 prize was to belong to the last drawn ticket. The prizes
aggregated $5,500, leaving a net profit of $2,000. The drawing
was had under the superintendence of State officers, Wm. White, Secretary of
State, and John Craven, Comptroller. The highest prize was drawn by ticket No.
1138, held by General Lawrence Baker, grandfather of a Confederate General of
the same name.

The scheme of the second lottery drawn in 1802 was as follows:

There was 1 prize of $1,000

1 prize of 500

2 prize of 250

1 prize of 100

to be the first-drawn ticket of the last day of
drawing.

1

prize of $200 to be the last drawn ticket.

20

prizes of 100

15

prizes of 50

895

prizes of 10

931

prizes.

1864

blanks.

2800

tickets &commat; $5 each, $14,000.

The foregoing is the scheme as stated in the Raleigh
Register. As the prizes foot up $14,000 it is to be presumed that
the University retained a large number of tickets and participated in

the drawing. At any rate the net amount to the
University Treasury was $2,865.36. The net amount from the first lottery
was $2,215.45. The whole amount was, therefore, $5,080.81.

It is remarkable how completely public sentiment has changed on the
subject of lotteries. The hostility to them seems to tend towards driving them
from their last refuge, Church Fairs. In 1802 the best men lent their names and
active aid to them. I have in my collections an autograph of George Washington,
date not given, signed to a lottery ticket. In order to induce our citizens to
buy the tickets of the University lotteries, batches of them were placed in the
hands of Trustees and other friends of the institution, who were expected to
use their personal influence to procure purchasers. We have copies of these
letters of transmission. One is signed by Henry Potter, Judge of the District
Court of the United States, Henry Seawell, State Senator and afterwards
Superior Court Judge, John Haywood, State Treasurer, and Wm. Polk, President of
the State Bank. They assert that "the interests of the University of
North Carolina, and of Learning and Science generally throughout our State, are
concerned in the immediate sale of the tickets." They continue with
delicate flattery: "From a belief that no measure calculated to promote
the prosperity and happiness of our country is indifferent to you, this request
is made."

In order to inspire confidence, the proceeds of sale were to be sent to
Benjamin Williams, who was not only Governor but a man of character and wealth.
With a sense of propriety characteristic of the old school of gentlemen his
official title is omitted.

The Commissioners of the second lottery were Messrs. Polk, Haywood and
Potter. They state that the want of punctuality, in making returns by some of
the agents for sale of the tickets in the first lottery, had occasioned
"much difficulty, delay and embarrassment in the course of the
drawing." Those who performed their duty have the satisfaction that
"their patriotic and well-meant endeavors have proved effectual and have
already brightened the prospects of this institution, and of our

country throughout, so far as depends on a general
diffusion of Learning and Science." The Commissioners are sanguine in
their expectations of this mode of raising money, "however illy it may
comport with the wealth and dignity of the State."

The slowness with which the returns were made met with the stern
denunciation of the Treasurer, Gavin Alves, son of James Hogg, who had by act
of Assembly adopted his mother's name. In a letter to the Commissioners he
accuses the "backward gentlemen" of shameful neglect of the trust
reposed in them. He asks leave to threaten public exposure. At any rate
"if neither sense of shame nor regard to propriety can actuate them I
must try what incessant importunity will do."

I find a third lottery advertised, identical with the second, but the
project was abandoned. More than was allowed by the act of Assembly had already
been realized.

It is painful to be compelled to record that $300 of lottery No.
1 and $604 of lottery No. 2 had not been returned by the agents of the
University, mostly Trustees, as late as December, 1803. Measures were taken to
notify delinquents that those not accounting within six months should have
their names published in the newspapers. It was afterwards ascertained that
those charged with the value of tickets intrusted to them for sale had failed
to dispose of the same, so that it was a case of carelessness, not fraud.

APPEALS FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS--DONATIONS.

In February, 1803, the lottery money not being sufficient to finish the
Main Building, efforts were made to raise additional funds by subscription.
Col. Polk, President of the Board, issued an appeal deploring the necessity of
beholding its exposed and roofless walls and the almost naked shelves of the
Library. He urged all "Patriots to come to the rescue, because no country
can long remain free unless its religious, civil and political rights are
understood by the mass of its citizens." "Every one contributing
even one volume toward improving the minds of youths, who are to succeed us on
the stage of life, must feel a self-approbation. On these youths the character
and fate of our country depends."

A Trustee for each Judicial District was appointed for the receipt of
contributions for the increase of the library, as well as finishing the
building, and as those considered most active in behalf of the University were
appointed I give their names: Robert Montgomery, Senator from Hertford for the
Edenton District; Calvin Jones, a physician of Wake County of reputation and
public spirit; Joshua G. Wright, Commoner from Wilmington, Speaker of the
House, soon to be Judge in the Wilmington District; Charles W. Harris, late
Presiding Professor of the University, of Halifax District; Duncan Cameron,
Commoner from Orange, soon to be a Judge, of the Hillsboro District; Nathaniel
Alexander, late Senator from Mecklenburg, a member of Congress and soon to be
Governor, of the Salisbury District; Wm. Barry Grove, Member of Congress, of
the Fayetteville District; and Wallace Alexander, late Senator from Lincoln, of
the Morgan District.

The appeal was not greatly successful. $1,664 was raised in cash.
Some of the Trustees appointed seem not to have acted. Charles W. Harris had
the seeds of consumption and was soon to start on his trip to the West Indies
in the vain effort to escape his foe. Wallace Alexander about this time closed
his honored life. The most active Trustees were primarily Wm. Polk, and after
him Robert Montgomery and Durant Hatch, of Jones County. Col. Polk was not only
successful in procuring donations from others, fifty in number, but gave
$100 himself. Among the fifty are some notable names. Judge Cameron,
William Norwood, Henry Potter, Emmanuel Shober, William Peace, John D. Hawkins,
Robert Williams, Judge John Hall, Theophilus Hunter, Wm. Creecy, Sherwood and
William Henry Haywood, and many other citizens of Wake and adjoining counties.
John Spence West, of Craven, was likewise active and raised $80 in
addition to his own subscription of $20. Ex-Governor Samuel Johnston,
who had that year resigned his judgeship, donated $100.

On July 3, 1803, the Trustees concluded to ask again for funds for the
completion of "the Principal Building." An eloquent address was
issued, prepared evidently by Governor Martin. They claimed that literary
institutions are the grand security

of our liberties and
that from them in great measure all civil and religious information flows, that
they qualify young citizens to discharge their political duties with honor and
reputation. The Trustees boast with honest pride that heretofore their
guardianship has not been in vain. The aids amply supplied by the acts
establishing the University have been taken away. This caused the disagreeable
necessity of resorting to lotteries, "a mode not the most honorable of
raising money for the institution." The money thus raised has been
invested in stocks of the Bank of the United States, "not to be drawn
upon but under a pressing emergency." The people were exhorted to equal
in generosity that recently shown by private donations and legislative
endowments in several of the United States. The success of this movement is
elsewhere shown.

We learn from Governor Stone that in 1800 another Representative in
Congress who was an active Trustee, William Barry Grove, of Fayetteville, had
procured, with funds placed in his hands for the purpose, an electrical
apparatus, and that Governor Martin, then Senator of the United States, had
ordered as a gift a new telescope. About the same time the excellent body of
Christians, the Unitas Fratrum, or Moravians, through Frederick William
Marshall and Gotlieb Shober, donated $200 in cash. And then there was in
1802 a gift of new pair of globes. The letter accompanying the gift was written
by Mrs. Winifred Gales, wife of Joseph Gales, the editor of the
Raleigh Register, who was one of the contributors, but
whose name was not signed to the letter for some reason, possibly because her
husband edited the Republican organ, the Raleigh
Register, and the University was accused of being a Federalist
institution. The letter was published in the Minerva or
Anti-Jacobin, the organ of the Federalists. As a good
sample of the stately style of the old days I give it complete:

To the Rev. Joseph Caldwell, Presiding Professor of the University of North Carolina.

SIRS--The Ladies of Raleigh, learning that the Globes belonging to the University are too much defaced to be useful, respectfully present the Institution with a new pair, 12 inches in diameter, with the latest discoveries, with a compass, which they entreat you, Sir, to present in their name.

Sensible of the literary advantages which the rising generation will derive from this valuable seminary of learning, they beg leave to express their affectionate wishes that it may continue to advance in the estimation of the public, as well from the ability of the Professors, as the acquirements of the students, who, bringing into public life the knowledge they have there imbibed, may at once be a credit to the State of North Carolina, a crown of honor to their parents, and a blessing to themselves.

May the past, the present and the future students distinguish themselves in society, no less by their literary attainments, than by a virtuous course of conduct, which giving additional lustre to talents will render themselves at once useful and honorable members of society.

We are with great respect,

Your obedient servants,

S. W. POTTER,

ANNA WHITE,

ELIZA WILLIAMS,

NANCY BOND,

PRISCILLA SHAW,

HANNAH PADDISON,

ELEANOR H. P. SMITH,

WINIFRED MEARS,

SARAH POLK,

ELIZA E. HAYWOOD,

NANCY HAYWOOD,

MARGARET MCKEITHAN,

MARGARET CASSO,

REBECCA WILLIAMS,

SUSANNAH PARISH,

ANN O'BRYAN.

I am quite sure that neither in diction nor in penmanship can the ladies
of the present day excel the venerable mothers of the city of Raleigh.

Among them we notice the wives of Judge Potter, Secretary of State
White, Colonel Polk, Treasurer Haywood, Sherwood Haywood, Robert Williams, the
University Treasurer, and of the lady, wife of Peter Casso, the tavern-keeper,
who gave the name to the baby son of her husband's hostler, Andrew Johnson,
afterwards President of the United States. Mrs. Anna White was a daughter of
Governor Caswell.

On the 26th November, 1803, the heart of Mr. Caldwell was cheered by the
receipt of another gift from ladies, this time from New Bern. It is addressed
to him as "First Professor of the University," and is as
follows:

SIR:--Desirous to manifest our solicitude for the prosperity of the Institution, over which you preside, we request you to accept for the use of the Philosophical Class, a Quadrant, the best we could procure, but not the most valuable gift we would wish to present.

Our sex can never be indifferent to the promotion of science, connected as it is with the virtues that impact civility to manners and refinement

to life. Nor can we suppress the emotions of (we hope) an honest pride, at the reflection that our native country boasts a seminary, where, by the proper extension of Legislative patronage, its ingenuous youth might be taught to emulate the worth of their fathers, where their minds might be enlightened with knowledge, and their hearts impressed with a love of justice, morality and religion; where they might learn to embellish the manly and patriotic endowments, which constitute strength of character and qualify men to cherish "the mountain nymph, sweet Liberty," with all the arts that polish, all the charities that sweeten the intercourse of social life. With great respect,

We are, Sir,

Your obedient servants,

MARY DAVES,

JANE CARNEY,

HANNAH TAYLOR,

ELIZABETH GRAHAM,

FANNY DEVEREUX,

SUSANNAH JONES,

ELIZABETH STANLY,

SUSAN GASTON,

MARY MCKINLAY,

JULIA A. HAWKS,

AMARYLLIS ELLIS,

SARAH WOODS,

ELIZABETH ARNETT,

ELIZABETH OSBORN,

JANE TAYLOR,

MARY NASH.

In his reply Caldwell refers pointedly to the unpopularity of the
institution, while claiming that it was unfounded. "The
University," he says, "early excited expectations which were
unfortunately too sanguine and premature to be realized. * * * Though liberal
education improves the young it cannot make them perfect. Though the attainment
of knowledge may be rendered comparatively easy, it is chimerical to propose
that it shall be universal, or totally without expense. Add to these the
circumstance of raising and supporting the institution by a species of fraud
which the interested would execrate and the popular would decry. * * *
Prejudice in some and want of information in others were unhappily assisted by
the indiscretion and misconduct of youth." Notice that he attributes the
odium which had been excited against the University partly to disappointment in
regard to expense, to the clamor aroused by enforcing claims to confiscated
lands and debts, and to reports widely circulated of the bad behavior of the
students. He is however so hopeful that he proceeds in a strain of eloquent and
courtly compliment to the fair donors. "The steadfast friends of the
University have sustained the trial in its severities, its toils and alternate
despondencies, till they can bless

the new dawnings of
prosperity, which gild the horizon of their venerable years. For the animation
they have felt in the conflict they are greatly indebted to that sex, which
best knows how to estimate the virtues that impart civility to manners and
refinement to life. The torch of patriotism which burned so inextinguishably in
their breasts has been peculiarly brightened by the united flame of an
honest pride in you, which kindled at the reflection,
that our native country boasts this seminary." He closes with the last
sentence of the letter of the ladies.

Among the donations of a minor nature at this period it is recorded that
ex-Governor Alexander Martin gave a pamphlet of his own composition entitled,
"A New Science, interesting to the people of the United States,
additional to the historical play of Columbus." This presents the worthy
patriot in a new role of dramatic author. The General Assembly of the State
gave three volumes of a history of Geneva. The same Alexander Martin presented
a microscope and acromatic telescope 3 1-2 feet
long, magnifying 70 times for land objects and 80 times for astronomical
purposes; Judge Alfred Moore, a pair of globes; Hon. W. B. Grove, a barometer
and thermometer; Professor Caldwell, a camera obscura. Other instruments were
purchased. To the Museum were donated objects of much interest, such as by
General Davie, three medals of Napoleon at Marengo; stained glass from Leon in
old Spain; Indian ornaments of copper found near Halifax; Indian pipes of
curious workmanship; by Charles W. Harris, inter alia, a Bezoar stone from the
stomach of a deer; by Dr. Fisher, copper coins of Rome; by Henry Young, a
jointed or glass snake and a "Bezoar stone from the stomach of a
veal." There were various other objects in the Museum, all lost in the
casualties of four-score years and ten. The fact that the Bezoar stones
voluntarily relinquished the ownership of charms against evil shows the decay
of an ancient superstition.

In 1809 it was determined to make still another effort to raise funds
for the completion of the South (or Main) Building. President Caldwell,
Treasurer Haywood and Wm. Gaston were the committee to draft an address to the
friends of education in the State; and Caldwell was authorized to travel

through the State in vacation to secure subscriptions.
The plan was his. In that year and again in 1811 he visited the more opulent
parts of the State and secured about $8,220, and, while our people were
going crazy over their naval victories in 1814, the rejoicing students moved
into the completed South Building. The undertaker, or contractor, had the
fitting name of John Close. There were 30 who gave $100 each. In the
$100 list will be found such well-known names as those of Judge Lowry,
Judge Henderson, Judge Hall, Archibald Henderson, William Boylan, Governor
Williams, Chief Justice Taylor, Rev. Andrew Flinn, D.D., then of Charlotte.
Judge Donnell gave $75, and Wm. Holt, of Wilmington, $40. There
were 23 of $50 each, among them Joseph Gales, the editor; General
Beverly Daniel, Governor Owen, John Gray Blount, General Thomas H. Blount.
Among the four $40 subscribers was Dr. A. J. De Rosset, the elder. Among
the six $30 subscribers we find Governor Dudley. Of the seven $25
donors is Judge Potter. Of the 13 $20 men are Wm. Peace, who gave
$10,000 to Peace Institute. There were 18 who gave smaller amounts,
among them General Joseph G. Swift, of the United States army, who married Miss
Walker in Wilmington, who was in the $10 list.

It is noticeable that the baleful effects of party spirit, the
luke-warmness, if not hostility to the University because the President and at
least the majority of the Faculty were Federalists, are apparent on this list.
The largest generosity was in the seaport towns, where hostility to Jefferson's
Embargo was intense, while the farming section where Republicanism was supreme
gave little. The $900 of Orange was by five men, one of whom was
President of the University. The $300 of Halifax was by two donors, that
county, after the departure of Governor Davie, being intensely Jeffersonian,
and the $300 of Granville was also by two donors.

It is pleasant to see how the young Raleigh merchants, Wm. Peace and
Richard Smith, are found on the list; the former afterwards, as said, being the
founder of Peace Institute, and the only daughter of the latter, by her bequest
of $37,000 establishing the Professorship of General and Analytical
Chemistry. In their company is seen the name of a learned divine, a

graduate of 1799, who after teaching and preaching in
North Carolina, soon became pastor of a Presbyterian congregation in the city
of Charleston in our neighboring State on the south, Andrew Flinn, D.D.

Some of these benefactors have left memories of varied and important
services to the State. There are Governors, United States Senators, Chief
Justices and Judges, Attorney-Generals, leading divines, teachers, physicians,
farmers, lawyers, merchants, in fine all the business pursuits of our
people.

CHAPTER II.

CONFISCATED PROPERTY AND HOSTILE LEGISLATION.

In December, 1794, the General Assembly was induced to make a grant to
the University which brought to it little money but much animosity. The
preamble recites that the Trustees have, with a laudable zeal for the promotion
of literature, erected a building for the use of the institution entrusted to
them and are prepared to commence the exercises, but have not funds to proceed
in the liberal manner, which the honor and interest of the public demand. The
act then gives the Trustees all unsold confiscated land, including the
forfeited rights of Henry Eustace McCulloch, a British subject, for lands
contracted to be sold by him, title being withheld for security of the purchase
money. The Trustees were authorized to make title on payment of the balances
due. The donation under the act was greatly weakened by the provision that all
above twenty thousand dollars should be paid over to the State, that only the
interest on receipts should be used, and that after ten years the principal
should be subject to the disposition of the General Assembly.

The Trustees employed able lawyers to realize funds under the act. The
principal receipts were from the moneys due McCulloch, for lands contracted to
be sold to sundry inhabitants of Mecklenburg and adjoining counties, and from
the sale of confiscated lands, principally of McCulloch. Adlai Osborne, of
Rowan, a University attorney, reported sales from June, 1795, to July, 1798,
amounting to $14,946, most of which were on credit. There were 77
buyers. The net amount received up to November, 1807, was $7,160.58. In
1804 the Court of Conference decided in the cases of Ray's Executors v.
McCulloch, and Trustees v. Rice, that the claim of McCulloch was by the Treaty
of Peace of 1783 made good to him; whereupon the General Assembly ordered the
refunding of the foregoing amount, which had been invested in United States
stock, to the State Treasury in trust for such of his debtors as

had paid the Trustees. The University, however, had the
receipt of the interest on the amount collected from time to time.
Notwithstanding this, as will be hereafter seen, the act of 1794 was a distinct
injury. It raised unfounded hopes and caused the University to be hated in a
very powerful section of the State. It well nigh caused its ruin. Davie alludes
to it in one of his letters, evidently with little hope.

"If any man of proper literary merit could be found imprudent
enough to engage with us as President upon the prospect of our ten years fund,
I hope the Board may have more discretion than to employ him. I still hope
these funds may become permanent. As the proceeds of the confiscated lands will
now soon be collected it may perhaps be in our power to employ another
professor." * * * Dr. McCorckle has pledged himself to demonstrate to the
Board at the next meeting that we are able to employ all the officers the plan
of education calls for, and pay them liberally, too. I am afraid it will remain
a problem notwithstanding the doctor's learning and talents."

We learn from a letter of Caldwell written in January, 1804, that it
was his opinion that the chief cause of the outbreak of the hostility against
the University in the General Assembly of 1800 was the litigation instituted by
the Trustees under the authority of the act of 1794. Having enjoyed these lands
for about twenty years since the confiscation law was passed, it was in
accordance with human nature for their possessors to be angry with a
corporation which was actively pressing in the courts suits on these old
claims. We find that George Fisher, of Rowan, a county adjoining that in which
most of them resided, made the motion, which was supported by all the members
from that and the adjacent counties with only four exceptions, to repeal the
act.

A letter from a "Gentleman in Raleigh" to the editors of a
journal called "The Anthology," in relation
to the literature of North Carolina, states in regard to the University:

"The Rev. Joseph Caldwell, President of the University, is the
first scientific and literary character in the State. He is now employed in
writing a book on Mathematics intended as a school book. Two sermons and an
eulogium on General Washington

by him, which have been
published separately in pamphlets, are handsome specimens of his
abilities."

"To a 'huge misshapen pile,' which is placed on a
high rocky eminence twenty-eight miles from this (Raleigh), has been given the
name of a college, and a donation from General Thomas Person, built a neat
Chapel. After considerable difficulties were experienced on account of
incompetent teachers and insurrections among the students, the institution
under the direction of Mr. Caldwell, two professors and two tutors, acquired
regularity and consistency in its exercises. When our enlightened Legislature
discovered that education was inconsistent with Republicanism, that it created
an aristocracy of the learned who would trample upon the rights and liberties
of the ignorant, and that an equality of intellect was necessary to preserve an
equality of rights, influenced by these wise and patriotic considerations the
Legislature gave to themselves again what they had before given to the
University. The institution now languishes. Mr. Caldwell's anti-Republican love
of literature, and not the emoluments of his office, induces him to preserve in
existence and by his influence, even the shadow of a college. He is assisted by
only one tutor; the funds do not permit the employment of more."

Such was the popular odium at this time against the University that
the General Assembly of 1800 not only repealed the act of 1794, but,
notwithstanding the strenuous exertions of some of the ablest men of the day,
went further and repealed that of 1789, granting escheated property. So far as
the hostile legislation affected confiscated property, it was not of much
consequence, because the grant was to expire in 1804 and the courts would have
forced the University to disgorge the receipts from the mortgages and liens of
McCulloch. But the deprivation of escheats, if successfully carried out, would
have been fatal. It would have taken away the unclaimed land warrants located
in Tennessee, the proceeds of which were the interest bearing endowment prior
to the Civil War.

But it was not carried into effect. In the first place the Court of
Conference in the case of University v. Foy, 1 Murphy, 58, decided the
repealing act unconstitutional; and although

this case
was overruled by that of University v. Maultsby, 8 Ired. Eq., 257, the action
of the court, and we hope a change of sentiment, led the General Assembly in
1805 to restore the escheats. One of the strongest advocates of such
restoration was Maurice Moore, heretofore described as one of the early
students. I have examined the votes on this drastic measure and find them
chiefly, but not entirely, on party lines. The names of those who stood by the
institution on this vital question should be recorded.

The Senators were Henry S. Bonner, of Beaufort; John Johnston, of
Bertie; I. Lewis, of Bladen; Benjamin Smith, of Brunswick; Caleb Phifer, of
Cabarrus; William Gaston, of Craven; Bythell Bell, of Edgecombe; Jordan Hill,
of Franklin; Thomas Taylor, of Granville; Robert White, of Green; Stephen W.
Conner, of Halifax; Thomas Wynns, of Hertford; Joseph Masters, of Hyde; Durant
Hatch, of Jones; Wm. McKenzie, of Martin; John H. Drake, of Nash; John Hill, of
New Hanover; John M. Beauford, of Northampton; David Ray, of Orange; Frederick
Bryan, of Pitt; Elias Barnes, of Robeson; James Collier, of Warren; Richard
Croom, of Greene.

John Johnston was a nephew of Governor Samuel Johnston. Wm. Gaston at
the age of twenty-two was beginning his long career of enlightened public
service, always advocating liberal and progressive ideas. He made a motion
which would have secured to the University all lands actually taken into the
possession of the Trustees, but it was voted down. Senator Benjamin Smith is
the same who, at the first meeting of the Board in 1790, donated Tennessee land
warrants to the new institution. He induced the Senate by his powerful
influence to agree to refer the whole matter to a joint committee, but the
House refused to agree to it.

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 32 to 23, having already
passed the House by the decisive majority of 82 to 35. Among the minority
Senators I notice only one who attained any eminence: Peter Forney, of Lincoln,
who was afterwards a member of Congress. Of the majority, Senators Smith became
Governor, Gaston a member of Congress and Judge of the Supreme Court of our
State, Wynns, after whom Winton is named, a member of Congress.

The members of the House who stood up against the adversaries of the
University were John Kennedy and Frederick Grist, of Beaufort; Joseph Jordan,
of Bertie; Street Ashford and J. Bradley, of Bladen; Benjamin Mills, of New
Brunswick; George Ellis, James Gatling and John S. Nelson, of Craven; Thomas C.
Ferebee, of Currituck; Sterling Yancey, of Granville; Stephen Harwell, of
Halifax; Robert Montgomery and James Jones, of Hertford; Joseph Jordan and Adam
Gaskins, of Hyde; John Moore, of Lincoln; Jeremiah Slade, of Martin; Charles
Polk, of Mecklenburg; Samuel Ashe, Joshua G. Wright and Alexander D. Moore, of
New Hanover; Samuel Benton; John Cabe and Absalom Tatom, of Orange; John Nixon
and Charles W. Blount, of Perquimans; Herndon Harolson, of Person; Richard
Evans, of Pitt; Evan Alexander, of Rowan; Henry Seawell, of Wake; James Turner
and Thomas E. Sumner, of Warren; and Meshack Franklin, of Surry.

Of the above John Moore, Alexander Duncan Moore, Evan Alexander and
John Hill, brother of William H. Hill, who assisted in selecting the site of
the University, were members of the Board of Trustees. Charles Polk was, I
think, the brother of Col. Wm. Polk, who, on account of his love of fun, went
by the name of "Devil Charley." Joshua G. Wright was afterwards a
Judge. Samuel Ashe was a worthy son of Governor Samuel Ashe. Samuel Benton was
a brother of Jesse, father of Thomas Hart Benton.

Absalom Tatum had been a member of Congress, as were also Evan
Alexander and Meshack Franklin. James Turner was in two years to be Governor,
and then Senator of the United States. Thomas E. Sumner was a son of General
Jethro Sumner of the Continental line, and soon afterwards emigrated to
Tennessee.

It seems evident that those who voted to sustain the University were
not punished by the people for their action. It is equally clear that its
opponents did not lose the favor of the people. More exciting questions
occupied their minds.

In a letter written June 9, 1805, on the eve of his departure to his
plantation in South Carolina, Davie deplored the distressing state of the
University on account of legislative hostility.

Great
injury had been inflicted by this hostility on the reputation of the State. He
says, "men of science in other States regard the people of North Carolina
as a sort of semi-barbarians, among whom neither learning, virtue nor men of
science possess any estimation. * * * In South Carolina a professorship is more
eagerly canvassed than the secretaryship of the government of the United
States, the consequence of the liberal spirit displayed by their Assembly.
After a handsome and permanent endowment of the offices of the institution
(South Carolina College) they voted $10,000 for purchase of a library
and philosophical apparatus. What a contrast. Poor North Carolina!"

It is interesting to inquire whether there were other causes of the
unpopularity of the University besides the litigation under the act of
1794.

Naturally the reports of the misbehavior of students, undoubtedly bad,
but grievously exaggerated, had a tendency to weaken the influence of the
University, all the more because none of the Faculty were known to our people.
But papers in our archives show conclusively that political feeling was the
chief cause.

A letter from John Henry Hobart, heretofore described, to Mr. Caldwell
in March, 1798, indicates the views of the two friends about public matters.
After a little badinage on the subject of love and regret that Caldwell's
health had not improved, he said, "What think you of the honorable
Congress? Do you not think that they are in a fair way to rival the French
Convention? We have sometimes heard of members there tusseling for the tribune
(i. e., to 'get the floor'). But Mr. Lyon has improved upon them
and attempted to make spitting in the face fashionable. Is it not astonishing
that party spirit should have shielded this infamous wretch from punishment?
Dr. Griswold has tried the thickness of his coarse hide, and I only wish he had
beaten him to a jelly."

"No direct news from our Commissioners. It appears that the
French Directory treat them with silent contempt. When will the American spirit
be roused? Is it content tamely to lick the dust? Can you not infuse some
Federalism into your

neighbors in Carolina, and displace
some of your present ignorant and pusillanimous members?"

The North Carolina Senators were then Alexander Martin and Timothy
Bloodworth; and the Representatives, Thomas Blount, Nathan Bryan, Dempsey
Burgess, Wm. Barry Grove, Matthew Locke, Nathaniel Macon, Joseph McDowell (of
Quaker Meadows), Richard Stanford and Robert Williams, all men of good
character and not one deserving the harsh language of Bishop Hobart.

There is some evidence that Caldwell was indiscreet in regard to the
utterance of his political sentiments. We have proof positive that there was a
widespread opinion that he was a bitter partisan.

On the 22d of February he delivered an address on the character of
General Washington, who died about two months previously. The Senior and Junior
classes requested a copy for publication. They say "The theme, noble as
it is, has received additional splendor from the spirit of candor in which it
was discussed. The publication will refute the calumnies which have been so
industriously circulated."

Two or three years after this a man, styling himself
"Citizen," attacked the University fiercely in the public prints.
One of his charges was that "every effort is made to give direction to
the minds of the students on political subjects, favorable to a high-toned
aristocratic government." * * * "The country will be imbued with
aristocratic principles because an aristocrat is at the head of it."

In giving this a bitter denial, Caldwell says: "It has been made
the subject of declamation on public election grounds a long time." * * *
"I have common sense to refrain from subjects upon which, if I were to
enter into discussion with my pupils, I should only incur their contempt.
Politics is a subject upon which youth will speak and determine with as much
confidence as men of any age, experience or study." He appeals to the
Republican members of the Board to say whether he sought the office of
executive head.

It was already recognized that Governor Davie was the virtual head of
the University. "Citizen" makes an ill-natured fling at him.

Another cause of unpopularity was the fact that the management of the
University was in the hands of a self-perpetuating body. The Board of Trustees
filling the vacancies in its body, having been Federalist in the beginning,
naturally continued so, although the people were generally Republican.

It seems strange that it should have been seriously attempted to bring
odium on the authorities of the University because of the beginning of the
South Building. The correspondent "Citizen" denounces it as
"the palace-like erection, which is much too large for usefulness, and
might be aptly termed the 'Temple of Folly,' planned by the
Demi-God Davie." Caldwell answers this sarcasm by showing that it was
absolutely essential to the progress of the institution. "No Northern
college has more than two persons in each room and the rooms are larger than
ours." In each room at Princeton are three windows instead of two. Into
our smaller rooms originally three beds and furniture for six persons were
forced, leaving hardly space for the six inhabitants to turn without jostling
one another. This was endured for some years. The Board determined to put an
end to this. The Main Building was commenced and an order passed that only four
should occupy one room. This was bad enough. "Here are fifty-six persons
huddled together with their trunks, beds, tables, chairs, books and clothes
into fourteen little rooms, which by the excessive heat of summer are enough to
stifle them, and in the winter scarcely admit them to sit around the fireplace.
When the weather permits they fly to the shade of the trees, where they find a
retreat from the burr and hurry and irrepressible conversation of a crowded
society." They even erected huts in the forest for greater privacy, but
this was found to interfere with discipline, and was prohibited by law.

The building was planned not by the "Demi-God Davie," but
by Governor Spaight. It was to have twenty-three habitable rooms. "These
with the rooms in the East Building will amount to 38, holding 76 students. We
have more than once had over 70. The excess above 56, i. e., four to a room,
lived in the village." Caldwell winds up his statements with a spurt of
eloquence. "If rooms sufficient were here we would have

100 students and our nation would have, not a Temple of
Folly, but a monument of glory to herself and a pledge of utility and worth to
all succeeding generations." He closes his discussion of this charge of
Citizen with a trenchant sarcasm. "As soon as the light of truth is
thrown upon Citizen, the visage from which issued such noisy and imposing
declamation appears nothing more than one wretched blank of inanity and
dullness. Malignity and lust of sway are his guiding principles and his
composition unites with the boisterousness of a stentor, the hardihood of
callous feelings."

To the charge of "Citizen" that the University employed as
teachers men from other States, as far as Massachusetts, and even from Europe,
Caldwell admitted the truth and contended that the only way to escape from this
degrading dependence is to facilitate education among ourselves, "the
true method of preventing an aristocracy of learning."

He complained bitterly of the unjust charges made against the
University. He indignantly affirmed that its enemies had caught up flying
rumors, not founded in fact, and then proceeded to multiply and misrepresent
and aggravate until the country was at length led to believe that the
institution could not be worse if it were filled with a parcel of inveterate
demons from among the damned."

I think I have shown that there were bitter partisan feelings against
the University, which naturally excited strong language on the part of the
pugnacious young Scotch-Irishman at its head. Archibald Murphey, however, the
young lawyer, ex-professor, writing from Martinsville, (old Guilford
Courthouse), seemed to attribute less importance to hostile attacks.

"Be up and active, for the University suffers as much from the
supineness of its friends, as from the malignity of its enemies."

The friends of the University generally trembled for its fate during
that alarming period. Judge Sitgreaves, writing to Treasurer Haywood, says,
"It would be a most painful idea to suppose that after so much pains had
been used by yourself and others to get it on its legs it should by any
accident be overturned. The aspect of the last legislature appeared to be
rather

malignant." He sees no remedy except the
election of a President, "whose weight of character will influence the
Faculty as well as the students."

David Stone, soon to be Senator and Governor, in a letter in 1800 to
the same Treasurer Haywood from Washington, where he was in attendance on
Congress as a Representative, did not agree with Sitgreaves, and mentioned a
different difficulty encountered by the distressed University. "There is
danger of being entirely without teachers," but he hopes that the
professors will stay. He argued against having a President because the salary
would not command a first-class man. "The operations of the present
government, or some other cause, has made money so much to abound this way, and
further East, and raised the price of living to such an extravagant height,
that salaries, considered handsome with us (in North Carolina) are here
scarcely thought worth notice."

On April 15, 1800, Hugh Williamson wrote from New York, then his
residence, that he hoped to get for a professor a clergyman, educated at the
New Haven College (Yale), because "his congregation originally small is
greatly diminished by the operation of politics. Many of his former hearers are
so completely modernized and philosophised as to think with the French National
Convention that "Death is an eternal sleep." He is more solicitious
to get one who has the spirit of command than one merely a good scholar. He
quotes . . . Qui docet indoctos licet
indoctissimus est. Ipse tamen breve doctior esse queat.

CALDWELL AS A CONTROVERSIALIST.

The worthy President was in those days a fighting member of the Church
militant. We have a long and extremely spirited reply of his to an attack on
the University for which he held Basil Gaither, Senator from Rowan, Absalom
Tatum, Commoner from the borough of Hillsboro, who had once been a friend of
the institution, James Welbourn, Senator from Wilkes and William Slade,
Commoner from Edenton, responsible. An analysis of this open letter gives a
good idea of arguments used by the opponents of higher education a century ago,
and of Caldwell's style and manner of answering them.

He begins by accusing them of being most conspicuous in trying to ruin
the University--

1. The charge that it has been a costly institution is not true. The
State only gave property lying dormant and useless to the public. This is
correct with the exception of $10,000 loaned and converted into a
gift.

2. The cry that the poor are being taxed for the benefit of the rich
is but a trick of hypocrisy, the crooked policy of imposture.

3. The attack is founded on an unreasonable envy, which some men feel
at the superior advantages of others.

4. It is objected that University education will bring monarchical
principles upon us. It is impossible. The State is too extensive, the land too
much divided. Education at the University only costs $100 per year. It
cannot be engrossed by the rich. Those making these objections are really
afraid that improved minds may oust them from their "seats of elevation,
leaving them at home to drink their whiskey until they are besotted, or to
drive their negroes in the cornfield."

Our youth educated abroad will have little State pride. The effectual
method of building up an aristocracy is to deny education to all except those
who are rich enough to send their sons abroad," at a cost of $400
or $500. "It is a fact which all witness that those, not North
Carolinians, who come in among us are able to supplant our own citizens in the
transaction of our own business. If education should become easy and plenty
among us, we shall preserve our public liberties from the grasp of those who
would otherwise engross all merit and abilities and knowledge to
themselves."

5. Forcing our citizens to send their sons to Northern Colleges sends
out streams of wealth, and increases the advantages they already have over us.
Per contra by creating a
University of character we cause currents of wealth to flow into us. We are
already obliged to send our wealth and commerce into Virginia, South Carolina
and Pennsylvania. It is sought to force us to give them other fruits of our
labors, whereas we may easily make reprisals on them.

As a specimen of Caldwell's power of vituperation, I give his
peroration to this branch of the subject: "Be assured, gentlemen,

the stupidity of your politics shall be known. . . . The
grave may open to you a retreat from public anger and contempt, and you shall
still live notorious monuments of that vileness, into which a sinister, a
malignant and insidious warfare against the good of the country must very
shortly descend," and more of the same sort.

He contended that "every national institution serves to generate
among us a national spirit and character. . . . It gives a spring to the public
nerve, and, by keeping it active, gives it tone and power." "It is
the very nature of a place of public education to polish and give play to the
springs of human action, to spread abroad a desire of information, a spirit of
active enterprise, and the instruments of interest, which must, without it, be
buried in some distant part of the world."

7. Another argument for the University is that it trains at a critical
period of their lives youths of fortune, who would otherwise waste their time
and learn dissipation. They should be considered the property of the country
and such training provided for them as will ensure improvement to their genius,
regularity to their conduct, and a love of religion to their affections.

8. It may be said, let the rich erect their own institutions. The
objections are--

1. It is too expensive to have separate institutions for different
classes of society.

2. Education is the business of the public and should not be
delegated.

3. Men of means should not be allowed exclusively to support the
University--

a. Because the students would not have a sense
of obligation to the State, but to the men of wealth whose bounty they
received.

b. A generous people should desire the chief
share in effecting what is most honorable and advantageous to themselves. But
Caldwell here breaks off into invective, "It is such men as you who rob a
people, when you once get the sway into your hands, of the honor and the
pleasure of every liberal act they could do."

Other arguments in favor of the University are urged. North Carolina
must come into competition with others. Will it do to send to the national
government men who know nothing of the world, of civil government, of the power
of speaking with some degree of oratory; who have never strengthened and
quickened the powers of their minds by long study and the exercise of reason?
Then the irate Scotch-Irish preacher bursts into a fierce argumentum ad homines.

"It is by no means impossible that chosen as our congressmen are
by districts, you might make the people near to you think that you were fit to
make laws for a generation. But what would be the result? The capital of the
United States would be to you like another world. The hall of Congress fitted
with members not only of as strong natural genius but of as perfect education
as any men in the country, would be a place where you would shrink from the eye
of every spectator. . . . You would be glad to take shelter under a dumb and
listening silence. And when you heard the tongue of eloquence rolling upon your
ear the imposing accents of reasoning and harmony, all that would be left for
you would be to be shaped at the will of skilful politicians."

"If you look at the representatives of this State for some years
this will be proved past controversy. . . . It is true, in a large
representation, we may see that there will be some who are senseless enough.
But unfortunately for us, so large a proportion of ours has always been of a
cast so completely inferior, being hardly able to show two or three of
respectable talents, from among a dozen, that there is no wonder that our
State, though so large and populous, is regarded in the very lowest rank in the
Union. . . . In what light ought we to view such men as you, who are striving
with all your might and main to condemn us to endless continuance in the same
unhappy lot?"

Caldwell then defends the University against the charge of
immorality.

9. "It is customary with you to raise a clamor about the
irreligion and vice which you ignorantly affirm to prevail among the youth who
are educated at a University. You are industrious

to
search out every boyish trick which you can come to the knowledge of, and you
do not fail to paint every act in the deepest colors of criminality and
corruption. . . . It is less unjust to you to condemn a whole society of people
for the indiscretion or absurd behavior of a few, than it is for these few to
be guilty of some absurdities. . . . How dreadful, how unjust, how hard it is
that calumny must be forever watching, as with a lynx's eye, the disorders of a
few wrong-headed young people, who are mixed up in a college with the body of
the students."

That the ferocity of party spirit was baleful to the University is
further shown by a letter written by the eminent "Log-college"
teacher and fighting parson, Captain of Cavalry in the Revolution, Rev. Dr.
James Hall, acknowledging the degree of D.D. conferred on him in 1810. He was
nettled that sometime before his name had been proposed as a Trustee without
success. He begs that he be not again nominated, partly because he was in his
69th year and partly because an editor--a "fugitive European"
[Joseph Gales] had characterized all clerical Federalists as "Rebel
Priests." His uniform character as a patriot and the part he acted
through the whole Revolution have not saved him from this and other most odious
epithets. One of his co-presbyters had been elected a member, (Rev. Dr. James
Wallis), the only Democrat in the Two Presbyteries, consisting of at least
thirty members. He urges that party spirit had prevailed too much in the choice
of Trustees, and in counselling that more of the clergy should be made members
of the Board, he asserts, that it is well known that no set of men under heaven
have done so much, or are capable of doing so much for the promotion of
literature, as those of the clerical order. He then gives unstinted praise to
President Caldwell. "I query if Christendom can produce such an example
on that subject as has been, and now may be found in the University of North
Carolina." He then announces that he intends to donate a considerable
number of volumes to the University, which was afterwards done, a most pleasing
proof that this most worthy man, who in his day exerted wide influence for
good, retained no malice for the injury which in his opinion the Federalist
Trustees had done him.

When the escheats were restored in 1805, the same act made the
Governor for the time being the ex-officio President of
the Board of Trustees. Further popularity was gained by giving the General
Assembly on joint ballot the power of filling vacancies, and, to ensure
regularity of attendance, two years continued absence from meetings forfeited
the seat of the delinquent.

In 1807 the Board was rendered more efficient by making seven members
a quorum for transacting business. In 1809 balances in the hands of executors
and administrators, remaining for seven years unclaimed, were vested in the
University. And so were likewise balances due the State by Sheriffs and other
officers prior to December 31st, 1799, but of course claims of such venerable
antiquity were not copious fountains of wealth. It shows badly either for the
financial integrity of the officers of the old times, or for the accuracy of
their business methods, that there were no less than sixty-eight judgments and
other evidences of debt against the same number of defaulters turned over to
the University. Among these there were seven clerks, sixteen sheriffs, nineteen
sellers of confiscated property, nine entry-takers, eight agents for sale of
lottery tickets in which the State, in behalf of the city of Raleigh, was
interested, one "Commissionary," i. e. Commissary, and two judges.
The dues of the judges, Samuel Spencer and John Haywood, were for licenses of
lawyers. The total amount due amounted to the handsome sum--on
paper--of $111,010 certificates and $38,942 in money.

COLLECTION OF ESCHEATS.

For the purpose of more thoroughly realizing the escheats, which had
been re-granted to the institution, the State was divided in 1809 into ten
districts and an attorney over each appointed. Naturally the friends of
education were chosen and hence their names should be recorded. For the 1st
District beginning with Ashe, Israel Pickens of Burke and Robert H. Burton of
Lincoln; for the 2nd beginning with Rowan, Lewis Beard of Salisbury; for the
3rd beginning with Anson, John Cameron of Fayetteville and Alexander McMillan
of Richmond County; for the 4th beginning with New Hanover, Samuel R.

Jocelyn of Wilmington; for the 5th beginning with
Chatham, A. D. Murphey of Hillsboro; for the 6th beginning with Halifax, John
Whitaker of Halifax; for the 7th beginning with Carteret, Wright C. Stanly and
John T. West, both of Newbern; for the 8th beginning with Hyde, John Roulhac of
Martin County and Thomas B. Haughton of Washington County; for the 9th
beginning with Bertie, Samuel Turner of Bertie; for the 10th beginning with
Wake, Robert H. Jones of Warren.

Any two Trustees, with the Attorney, were authorized to compromise all
litigation. They might select three freeholders to fix the price of land, which
might be sold on a credit of one, two and three years, with a discount of six
per cent allowed for cash. The Attorneys were allowed three per cent
commissions for selling, and two and a half per cent for collecting and paying
over the money. In case of suit fees usual among lawyers could be charged.
Annual reports must be made. Amounts over $1,000 were to be remitted in
one month. Less amounts within three months. As might be expected the
commissions were increased in special cases. In settling with Samuel R. Jocelyn
he was, on account of great and signal services, allowed ten per cent on sales,
and was not charged with failure to collect $3,218. This was very
handsome, as his sales amounted to $21,800.

At the same session of the Board Samuel Polk of Tennessee was
authorized to sell all the Gerrard lands except his "service
right," 2,560 acres. Under this authority Col. Wm. Polk became the
purchaser at the price of $4,352, for all which could be identified.

The receipts mainly from this source and from escheats were so liberal
about this time that the Trustees were not only able to pay for the South
Building, but to buy $11,050 stock in the Bank of Newbern, $8,400
in the Bank of Cape Fear, and $2,000 in the State Bank of N. C. Twenty
shares of the Newbern Bank were bought of Judge Gaston at 15 per cent premium
and 27 shares of Cape Fear at 25 per cent premium of Judge Murphey. Dividends
of 8 and 10 per cent per annum were received from the State Bank in addition to
a bonus of 17 1-2 per cent.

claiming the rights devolved by the law upon them, yet
whenever a case appealing to their generous feelings came up they were
sufficiently liberal. I give one example: John R. Donnell, afterwards a
Superior Court Judge, who graduated at the University with highest honors in
1807, was the heir of an uncle who owned a plantation in Lenoir County. As
young Donnell was born in Ireland, he could not, as the law then stood, inherit
the land. The Trustees in 1810 relinquished their claim, taking the precaution,
however, to have the General Assembly approve their action.

I find an application for relief by Jonathan Price. In a letter dated
July 21st, 1817, he stated that the State, in 1792 and 1794, loaned him and
Christmas, (William Christmas, doubtless, the Surveyor who laid out the city of
Raleigh, Senator from Franklin), money to complete a map of the State from
actual survey. This debt was transferred to the University. Christmas deserted
him and Strother took his place. In this work he had spent the prime of his
life and his little patrimony. The work commanded the admiration not only of
our sister States, but of European Reviewers. One of the English Reviews
pronounced the map worthy to be classed among the first published of its kind
in the world. Some of the States have made provision for the publication of the
maps of their territories "on the plan of that of Price and
Strother," and have voted ample means for the purpose. He pathetically
adds, "May the persons employed reap the reward of their labors, and not,
like me, in the winter of their age, be left in the pinching hands of poverty,
nor doomed to the melancholy reflection, that on one hand a grave is yawning to
receive them and on the other a prison. But I should feel proud, even in a
dungeon, of the advantages which the present generation are receiving, and
which posterity will receive, from the time and fortune I have devoted to my
country; and though my feelings make my old hand tremble while I write, my
heart beats with honest exultation in the recollection that my labors will
survive me." He applied to the legislature for relief. If that should be
refused, he offered, if the University withdraw the process issued against him,
to give one-half of all sums due him for maps

sold, and
half of future sales during his life, reserving the other half as a small
pittance for his maintenance; after his death the copyright and all unsold to
go to the University. It must be remembered that at this time a debtor could be
imprisoned by the creditor twenty days before taking the proper oath and being
released.

Three members of the Executive Committee, Messrs. Porter, Haywood and
Polk, authorized the recall of the ca-sa which had been issued and reference of
the matter to the Board of Trustees. At their next meeting further action for
the collection of the debt, £698, 18s. was indefinitely suspended on
payment of costs, the reason given being the poverty of the defendant. The
offer of Mr. Price with regard to sales and copyright was generously not
accepted.

The map referred to was the only large, or wall, map until that of
McRae was published in 1831.

THE FIRST GRADUATING CLASS.--TROUBLOUS TIMES.

The first Commencement during which diplomas were granted was on July
4, 1798. Seven young men headed the honorable procession of graduates of the
University of North Carolina.

It is proper to name all of these graduate fathers. Samuel Hinton of
Wake, a farmer; William Houston, a physician of Iredell; Hinton James, the
first student; Robert Locke, farmer of Rowan; Alexander Osborne, physician of
Rowan; Edwin Jay Osborne, lawyer of Salisbury and New York; Adam A. Springs,
planter of Mecklenburg, all prominent and useful citizens. Houston, Locke and
Springs were distinguished.

The Committee of Visitation after expressing their high sense of the
talents of the gentlemen engaged in the competition in declamation, awarded the
first honor to Mr. Nathaniel W. Williams of Tennessee, the second to Mr.
Richard Eagles of Brunswick, and the third to Mr. John B. Baker of Gates. It
appearing that there was a tendency to adopt dramatic acting, General Davie
strongly advised against it.

He wrote, "Dramas are by no means so well calculated for
improvement in elocution as single speeches. If the Faculty

insist on this kind of exhibition the Board must
interfere. Our object is to make the students men, not players." It
appears that very harsh criticism of the teaching and morals of the institution
had been idulged in in some quarters. Davie remarks
concerning this: "Human malevolence in some, interested views in others,
the ignorance and caprice of parents, will continue to injure our institution,
until it has acquired some stability, some fixed character, and this process
will require some years."

The creation of the spirit of dramatic acting was due to the influence
of a very interesting person, William Augustus Richards, the Tutor in the
Preparatory Department, of whom we have an excellent sketch by Judge Murphey.
He was a native of London, and had a fair education. For some reason he left
home and enlisted as a common sailor, serving both on merchantmen and men of
war. Having aspirations for a higher life, he deserted his ship at either
Baltimore or Norfolk and was saved from the searching party by the kindness of
an old lady, who had pity on his forlorn condition. By accident he met the
manager of a strolling band of players and joined the company, gaining of
course only a small pittance for his services. In the course of their
journeyings they reached Warrenton in North Carolina, the seat of an excellent
Academy, under the management of Mr. Marcus George, the teacher of many of our
best men, among them Chief Justice Ruffin and Weldon N. Edwards, a member of
Congress and President of the Convention of 1861. Two of the Trustees of the
Academy, Dr. Gloster and Mr. Wm. Falkener, discerned in Richards qualities
superior to his station and procured his appointment as assistant to Mr.
George. Thence he was induced to come to the University as Tutor, and till his
death in December, 1798, discharged his duties, in the language of the Board of
Trustees, "with singular reputation to himself and advantage to the
institution." Judge Murphey says, "His acquaintance with the stage
in some degree vitiated his morals and gave an air of affectation to his
manners. But these defects he greatly corrected before his death, and
counterbalanced by his many good qualities of mind and heart." He
naturally was interested in instructing the young men in elocution, and his
proposal to

deliver lectures on oratory was accepted by
the Trustees, but its execution was prevented by his death. It was he who
induced the Literary Societies to join in substituting for a time a dramatic
performance for all other duties. It is allowable to conjecture that the
scenery in Williamsboro, a few miles from Warrenton, which they purchased for
the occasion, was the tristes
reliquiae of the strolling company, which he left for more
serious and useful work.

The term preceding the Commencement of 1799 was especially stormy. For
some reason Mr. Gillaspie became personally obnoxious and the students broke
out in rebellion against the laws and the Faculty. They actually, according to
the testimony of Mr. Caldwell. "beat Mr. Gillaspie personally, waylaid
and stoned Mr. Webb, accosted Mr. Flinn with the intention of beating him, but
were diverted from it, and at length uttered violent threats against Mr.
Murphey and Mr. Caldwell, which were never put into execution." The
disorders were going on for a week. The students proposed to Mr. Caldwell that
he should assume the supreme authority, which request was, in his own language,
"rejected with contempt. It was necessary to summon the Trustees for the
appointment of a superintendent and restoring submission to the laws."
Three of the worst offenders were dismissed from the institution.

The effect of these disorders, of course, was to diminish the number
of the students. While there were eight graduates in 1799, there were only
three in 1800. The Faculty all tendered their resignations, so that there was
danger of the University failing for want of teachers. In November, 1799, a
committee of the Trustees, by order of the Board, advertised for a Professor of
Natural, Moral and Political Philosophy, of the Languages and Belles Lettres,
and of Mathematics. They stated that the salary and emoluments of each
professorship had been upwards of 500 dollars per annum, exclusive of board at
Commons. A Tutor in the Preparatory Department was also wanted at a salary of
200 dollars and board. The result of this glittering offer was the re-election
of Caldwell to the Chair of Mathematics, also to succeed Gillaspie as Presiding
Professor, and of Wm. Edwards Webb to be Professor of Languages in the place of
Holmes.

The early records of the University are so meagre and in such
confusion that we cannot ascertain definitely the causes of this most
disreputable riot of 1799. Certain facts which have come down to us throw a
light upon it.

We find an indictment of Prof. Samuel Allen Holmes by the other
professors, in the handwriting of Caldwell, charging him with offences so
serious as to show, if they were well grounded, that he was an 18th century
anarchist in theory, and a traitor to the University in practice.

The charges in substance were that when he entered the service of the
University he was a Baptist preacher, but he at once became an apostate. He
advocated the doctrine that there is no such thing as virtue--that the
love of virtue is a mere superstition; that to shake off its obligations and to
bend to the circumstances and character of the times so as to advance one's
interest or ambition is the best morality. For any man to profess to be
governed by the fixed principles of justice, of honor, of truth, or of
generosity, is sufficient to stamp him a hypocrite and a designing knave, that
is lying in wait under these characters for the happiness of others. He called
in question every truth of religion and then proceeded to shake out of his mind
every moral sentiment. He openly avowed that what is called virtue and
integrity are deceptions and injurious pretenses.

It is stated that Holmes was a trouble and a pest to Mr. Ker, Mr.
Harris, Mr. Caldwell, and Mr. Gillaspie. He undermined their influence by
blaming among the students their acts of discipline. Caldwell tendered his
resignation in 1796 because "he perceived that so long as he was to act
with a feeble-minded monk (Delvaux), an apostate and skepticized preacher
(Holmes), whose little mind was fruitful in every kind of villainy which envy
could suggest * * * and the only one in whom he could place dependence was a
man whose previous life had not earned him an exalted character (Richards), it
required no great sagacity to discover that the public affairs were not to be
advantageously conducted."

Caldwell further stated that, not content with taking the part of
students charged with breaches of the law, Holmes

constantly vilified and slandered the other professors. In regard to Caldwell
he said among the students that indolence and ignorance were his true
characters, that he was unprincipled, actuated by mean motives, and a drunkard,
and that the more effectually there should be an insurrection against the
established authority the better.

Notwithstanding this invective, when the subject of it died in Raleigh
about six years afterwards Caldwell preached his funeral sermon. It was of such
excellence that its publication was called for. I have been unable to procure a
copy and have no means of knowing to what extent the preacher modified his
unfavorable views, but his journeying twenty-eight miles and the preparation of
a written discourse tend to prove that Holmes had discarded his anarchistic
views. Moreover the Raleigh Register, in which this
notice is found, eulogistically states that "for several years past
Holmes was a Tutor in the University, in which situation he acquitted himself
much to his own credit and with great advantage to the establishment."
The editor mistakes in calling him Tutor, as he was Professor most of his time
of service. Remembering that the Register was a
Republican paper, and the extreme bitterness of party spirit, I think it
probable that Holmes became a violent Jeffersonian, indulged in the Voltairian,
Tom Paine cant of the times, talked swellingly of Big Liberty and the Rights of
Man, and his tenets and conduct were misunderstood and distorted by his
Federalist colleagues. He probably repented his errors. It was common in those
days to talk in the strain of modern anarchists.

Such differences in the Faculty would have produced discord in quiet
times. But the times were not quiet. Fighting and drinking and gambling were
almost universally fashionable and of course could not be banished from the
microcosm of the University. There was in the air a spirit of revolt against
authority, divine and human, which was felt in all circles whether of youth or
manhood. Universities and even schools for children found their pupils inclined
to recklessness and insubordination, and fathers had little correcting
influence because the children were but following their example.

element. Caldwell was a Federalist--possibly others
of the Faculty. Certainly soon afterwards the institution was violently
attacked in the newspapers and in the Legislature because of their alleged
opposition to Democratic principles. Party spirit was so bitter during John
Adams' administration, the days of the Alien and Sedition laws, that friendly
relations could with difficulty exist between opponents. The followers of
Jefferson were charged with seeking to introduce mob-rule and French
Red-Republicanism, while they alleged that their opponents were seeking to
change our government into a virtual monarchy. Republican students thought it
highly patriotic to insult and worry instructors, who, as they thought, were
enemies of the rule of the people, seeking to introduce an aristocracy, if not
a king.

This conjecture is sustained by the law passed by the Trustees during
that period. "No speech by a student shall have any allusion to party
politics. The Faculty shall be responsible that nothing indecent, immoral or
profane shall be spoken on the public stage." The first part of this
prohibition was destined to create an insurrection after a few years.

The difficulty of governing the students by reason of the evil
influence of Holmes was increased by the character of the rest of the teaching
force. The best of them (Caldwell) was only 27 years of age, and a native of
New Jersey, then a month's distance from North Carolina. Gillaspie was a young
native of the State, not a graduate of a college, evidently lacking in the
sound judgment and tact necessary to overcome these difficulties. The beating
of an executive officer is "unthinkable" in our days, and is a sure
sign of the want of what is called personal magnetism, however well-intentioned
was the officer.

The other instructors, Webb, Murphey and Flinn, were, as I have said,
young men, not yet graduated, although eminently worthy.

But the most efficient cause of insubordination was the conduct of the
Trustees. Instead of entrusting discipline wholly to the Faculty they
constantly interfered. The result was to take from the Faculty their sense of
full responsibility, and to infuse into the minds of the governed a contempt
for their

authority. Mr. Gillaspie expressed bitterly
the views of the Faculty on this subject, in a letter written from
Martinsville, February 19, 1800. "When at the University I understood
that two of the dismissed students had been re-admitted. This information at
first gave me some surprise and induced me to believe that the institution
would not be soon enough ruined by the system of measures which had been
previously formed. But upon further recollection I found nothing more than a
continuation of their resolution to support the students against the Faculty.
Such doings and undoings must be productive of the worst effects." Here
was a rebellion, the professors beaten and stoned, exercises broken up for a
week, the three chief offenders dismissed, and after about three months two of
them, on petition and submission, were re-admitted without consulting the
Faculty, by the Trustees, nearly all of whom were politicians. They were good
men too, Governor Benjamin Williams, Col. Wm. Polk, Judge Joshua C. Wright, Mr.
John Hay, ex-Gov. Samuel Johnston, Mr. Wm. Porter, Gov. Benj. Smith, Mr. Wm.
Hinton, Messrs. Wallace and Evan Alexander, Mr. Thomas Wynns, Mr. John Moore
(Lincoln), Mr. Thomas Blount. Excellent men, but their actions show that the
wisest may err in matters outside their usual callings. Caldwell had strength
as he grew older to break up the practice and it has never been resumed.

Too watchful interference of the Trustees with the internal management
of the University is ludicrously shown by a letter from Major Pleasant
Henderson, the Steward. In a letter to Walter Alves, Treasurer, he denounces
the report of the Committee of Visitation, "that his invariable service
of mutton and of bacon too fat to be eaten had nearly starved the boys. This
report comes like a thunder-clap on me, because I knew it was founded on
information false as hell." He confesses to "only 11 muttons, about
500 pounds, 12 or 13 dinners, about seven pounds apiece for the whole session.
Does this look like forcing mutton on them?" Even this small amount was
bought because neither beef, shoats nor chickens could be had. The doughty
Major admits the fatness of the bacon, but he solemnly asks "could the
committee conceive that the middlings should be

thrown
away?" The students had eaten all the hams served to them when vegetables
were scarce, and "certainly they ought to have the fatter part."
That the worthy patriot's feelings were cut to the quick is shown by the
statement: "Appearances are indicative of, if not ruin, the most severe
stroke I ever had."

The University shared in the general admiration of the Father of our
country. The farewell letter that he wrote to our people on his retirement from
the Presidential office in 1797 was ordered to be read publicly to the students
twice a year. And when he died on the 14th of December, 1799, the Acting
President, Caldwell, delivered an address of such merit that it was by request
of the students and Faculty printed for general distribution.

As Professor James Smiley Gillaspie (I adopt his spelling; indeed
Gillespie was universally pronounced Gillaspie) left the University in 1799, I
give some facts of his subsequent life. He married Fanny Henderson, a daughter
of Samuel Henderson and Elizabeth Calloway. Samuel was a brother of Judge
Richard and an uncle of Chief Justice Leonard and of Archibald Henderson.
Elizabeth Calloway was one of the three girls, her sister and Daniel Boone's
daughter being the others, captured by the Indians and rescued by Boone and
others. Mr. Gillaspie became a highly respected Presbyterian minister and with
members of the Transylvania colony, of which Richard and Samuel Henderson, with
others, were the founders, settled on lands granted the company. His eldest
daughter, Fanny, was the first white child born in the limits of Kentucky. He
left three daughters and one son, who is ancestor of Mrs. Conway H. Arnold, of
Montclair, New Jersey, wife of a Lieutenant in the United States Navy.

GILLASPIE RETIRES--CALDWELL PRESIDING
PROFESSOR--GRADUATES TO 1812.

The difficulty of procuring teachers in our State at the close of the
18th century is indicated by the fact that, of the five teachers in the service
of the University in 1797, one was a recent citizen of New Jersey, (Caldwell),
another, was a French Roman Catholic ex-monk, (Delvaux), a third was a
strolling

player, a deserter from the English mercantile
navy, (Richards). The difficulty was chiefly from the meagre salaries offered.
The dignity of a teacher's calling was not then, nor for many years afterwards,
if ever, properly appreciated, either by parents or the public.

At the Commencement of 1799, July 5th, the second list of graduates
was announced. They were nine in number.

George M. Marr passed the examinations but did not ask for a degree.
Burton, Flinn, Murphey and Phifer were distinguished. Murphey and Flinn were
Tutors in the University and Holmes had been a Professor. Flinn rose to be an
eminent Presbyterian minister of Charleston, S. C., and was awarded in 1811 the
degree of D.D. by this University. Burton was a prominent lawyer. Long died
early. Phifer was often State Senator from Cabarrus, as was Sneed from
Granville; while Webb became a prominent physician in Tennessee, and Crawford
in South Carolina. Marr was a Representative in Congress from Tennessee.

Of those who did not graduate, are to be noted Hutchins G. Burton, a
Representative in the State Legislature and in Congress, Attorney-General, and
Governor of North Carolina; Robert Harris, an influential merchant of Salisbury
and Sneedsboro, a brother of Charles W. Harris; James Mebane, Maurice Moore,
Ebenezer Pettigrew, Planter and Congressman; John Pettigrew, Richard H. Sims, a
Tutor in the University and head of the Grammar School; Robert W. Smith, seven
times Senator from Cabarrus; James Webb, an eminent physician of Hillsboro and
a Trustee of the University. David Gillespie, after his United States Coast
Survey Service, was a Representative of Bladen in the Legislature; Richard
Eagles and Nicholas Long were influential planters from New Hanover and
Franklin counties respectively.

A modest beginning was made of granting honorary degrees, the Faculty
nominating and the Trustees confirming. The honorary degree of Master of Arts
(Artium Magister, A. M.) was conferred on Joseph Caldwell, the new Presiding
Professor, Charles Wilson Harris, the first Professor of Mathematics, and
Joseph Blount Littlejohn, a member of the Legislature from Chowan. The academic
degree of Bachelor of Arts was given to the retiring Presiding Professor James
Smiley Gillaspie. This last honor indicates that the recipient was too young
and unlearned to be the head of the institution, as he had learned by
experience.

The Commencement of 1800 was held on June 28th. There was a good
attendance of Trustees. Besides Alexander Martin, Richard Bennehan, and David
Stone, who were the Committee of Visitation, there were Samuel Johnston, James
Hogg, John Haywood, Wm. Polk, Walter Alves, and Evan Alexander.

Of these, Cherry had a brilliant but short career as a lawyer and
politician. He was a member of the Legislature from Bertie. Henderson was a
member of the Legislature from Rowan, State Comptroller, of high character and
usefulness, but not the equal of his more distinguished brothers, Chief Justice
Leonard Henderson and the leader of the Western Bar, Archibald Henderson. Hunt
was a physician.

Of those matriculating with this class Robert H. Burton, as I have
stated, was a Judge; Daniel Newman, a Representative in Congress; William
Peace, a much respected merchant of Raleigh, Director of the State Bank
forty-five years and founder of Peace Institute.

Wm. E. Webb was Professor of Ancient Languages 1799-1800, having been
a student for several years. After leaving the institution he taught school in
Halifax County for a number of years, with reputation. In 1809, 1810 and 1811
he was a Commoner from his county in the General Assembly, and from 1809 to
1818 was a Trustee of the University.

was Professor of Ancient Languages for the year 1800. He
was a native of Caswell, born in 1777, son of a Revolutionary officer. After
leaving the University he settled as a lawyer in Hillsboro. From 1812 to 1818
he was a State Senator, and as such was the most active of all our public men
in promoting a Public School System and Internal Improvements. His report to
the Legislature of 1819, on the public school systems of different countries
deemed most successful, is a marvel of intelligent labor. From 1818 to 1820 he
was a Judge of the Superior Court, and in 1820 he was, under an act since,
repealed, a Judge of the Supreme Court for one term as a substitute for Judge
Henderson, who had been counsel in important cases then before the court. He
was Reporter of the decisions of the old Supreme Court 1804 to 1813, and of the
new court in 1818 and 1819. He was a Trustee of the University for thirty
years. Shortly before his death he collected valuable material for a history of
the State, and to aid him in writing and printing it the General Assembly gave
him authority to realize $15,000 by a lottery. This material was used by
Joseph Seawell Jones (Shocco) in writing his "Defence of North
Carolina" and by President Swain in preparing his "War of the
Regulation" and other monographs. Judge Murphey's address before the two
societies of the University in 1827 is full of historical information of
value.

A letter from him to President Caldwell, dated December 29, 1808,
indicates that, wearied with his professional pursuits, he sometimes longed for
the academic shades he had resigned. He regrets that his "prime of
life" is spent in vulgar pursuits. The improvement of the mind is
suspended, the paths of wisdom are unexplored. He fears he will lose a relish
for the pleasures of intellect; what is worse that he will lose that fine tone
which the pursuit of knowledge gives to the feelings, and without which the
world can afford but little happiness. While not finding fault with Providence,
he had often wished that fortune had thrown into his way riches, that he might
withdraw from the distractions of petty business and attempt once more to
cultivate true knowledge. Fortune has smiled on him since he left the
University and he entreats her to continue her friendship

until she enables him to live in independence and affluence."
Alas! the good man, notwithstanding a most honorable career in public and
private life, lost all his property by unfortunate investments and suretyships,
and was even subjected for a short while to the indignity of confinement in
prison bounds for debt.

Judge Murphey was always a true and active friend of the University.
In the scholarly report on Public Education above-mentioned he is emphatic in
testifying to its good work and in advocating State aid in its behalf. I give
some of his language: "This institution has been eminently useful to the
State. It has contributed, perhaps more than any other cause, to diffuse a
taste for reading among the people, and excite a spirit of liberal improvement.
It has contributed to change our manners and elevate our character." He
then urges the construction of three additional buildings, i. e., two
dormitories and one for library and apparatus; that a library and suitable
apparatus be purchased, that two professorships be endowed and that six
additional teachers be provided. "When former prejudices have died away,
when liberal ideas begin to prevail, when the pride of the State is awakened
and an honorable ambition is cherished for her glory, an appeal is made to the
patriotism and the generous feelings of the Legislature in favor of an
institution which in all civilized nations has been regarded as the nursery of
moral greatness and the palladium of civil liberty. That people who cultivate
the sciences and the arts with most success acquire a most enviable superiority
over others. Learned men by their discoveries and their works give a lasting
splendor to national character; and such is the enthusiasm of man that there is
not an individual, however humble in life his lot may be, who does not feel
himself blessed to belong to a country honored with great men and magnificent
institutions. It is due to North Carolina, it is due to the great man (General
Davie) who first proposed the foundation of the University, to foster it with
parental fondness and to give it an importance commensurate with the high
destinies of the State."

The graduates of the first year of the Nineteenth century (1801)
triples those of the last year of the Eighteenth. They

Amis had a very large brain and won distinction in his studies. He
afterwards sailed from Charleston without disclosing his object, and was
nevermore heard from. Bennehan was a wealthy farmer of Orange, a Trustee of the
University, and at Farintosh, his residence, dispensed a bounteous hospitality;
Branch, Governor of this State and of the Territory of Florida, and Secretary
of the Navy under Jackson; Dancy, a lawyer of much reputation; Hawkins was
often a legislator, fifty years a Trustee of the University, one of the
foremost in building the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad. Murfree, founder of
Murfreesboro, was a grandfather of the eminent Southern novelist, Mary Noailles
Murfree who, under the pen name of Charles Egbert Craddock, has so faithfully
and impressively delineated the characters of our mountaineers and the beauty
and grandeur of the Alleghanies. He was son of Colonel Hardy Murfree, who aided
in the daring and successful storming of Stony Point. Clark was a planter,
brother of the grandfather of Chief Justice Walter Clark. King, probably an
elder brother of Vice-President William Rufus King, represented Sampson County
in the Legislature.

Of the non-graduating matriculates with this class, Jesse Cobb was a
man of ability. Removing to Tennessee he became the founder of an influential
family, one of whom, William Cobb, became Governor of that State. Nathaniel W.
Williams was a Judge of the Superior Court of Tennessee; Johnston Blakely, as
Captain of the Wasp, captured the Reindeer, for which a gold medal was voted by
Congress. He also captured the Atlanta, and was lost at sea with his vessel.
John Goode was a lawyer in Virginia.

Of the Commencement speakers President Caldwell notes that "some
portrayed in language at once splendid and elegant the excellence of a
Republican form of government and described

the glory of
the American Revolution in glowing colors." In the figurative language of
a later date they evidently "flew a magnificent spread eagle."

The Tutor for 1800 and up to 1804 was Richard Henderson. He was the
son of a brother of Chief Justice Henderson, who emigrated to Kentucky to
settle on lands sold to the Transylvania Company by the Indians, which sale was
repudiated by the States of North Carolina and Virginia, but 400,000 acres
being allowed them by way of compromise. The son was a man of worth and
talents. After being principal of the Academy in Hillsboro he returned to his
native State and became a prominent lawyer. The Trustees gave him the degree of
A.B., though he had not passed his examinations, because they were satisfied
with his classical and scientific training while Tutor.

In 1802 P. Celestine Molie was employed to teach French for one year.
Nothing is known of him except that, like most foreigners instructing our youth
in early days, he was the subject of merciless ridicule and frequent insults.
Probably he was either a French emigré or a refugee from Hayti.

Professor Murphey was succeeded in 1801 by one who has profoundly
influenced for good this and other States--Rev. Wm. Bingham, an honor
graduate of the University of Glasgow, a Scotch-Irishman of Ulster. He
emigrated about 1788 on account of political troubles, landed in Delaware, but
soon removed to Wilmington, N. C. He here preached and established a classical
school. I have mentioned that he was among the first subscribers to the
inauguration of the University. As many of the wealthier inhabitants of the
lower Cape Fear either settled permanently or spent their summers on the hills
of Chatham, he transferred his school about 1795 to Pittsboro, and remained
there until his removal to the University.

After resigning his professorship in 1805 he re-opened his school at
Pittsboro, but, concluding that Hillsboro had a larger future, removed it to
that town in 1808. Probably on account of the drunkenness and rowdyism
attending court towns he soon bought a plantation five miles north of Mebane,
named it Mount Repose, and, erecting a school house of logs, there taught until
his death in 1825.

Wm. Bingham was a man of force, high purpose, and power of influencing
others. According to the recollection of Hon. Giles Mebane, once Speaker of the
Senate, he was "about five feet six inches tall, with no surplus flesh,
weighing 150 or 160 pounds; very quick and brisk in his movements, walking
erect like a well-drilled soldier. He was bald, the boys nicknaming him
"Old Slick." He walked three miles to church on Sundays, leading
his boarders. He was reasonably talkative, and sometimes jocose, but never
undignified."

His wife was Annie Jean, daughter of Colonel Slingsby, of the English
Army, who was stationed at Wilmington during the Revolutionary War, highly
regarded by the Americans for humanity and justice. Colonel Slingby's family
remained in Wilmington after the declaration of peace.

Professor Bingham left several children, the most prominent being Wm.
James, born at Chapel Hill in the house built for the President. On his
father's death he gave up his chosen profession of the law and took up the
school work at Mount Repose, but soon removed to Hillsboro and thence to a farm
called Oaks in western Orange. He advanced still further the fame of the
Bingham School, and handed it on to his sons, Colonels William and Robert
Bingham, whose reputation as teachers extends throughout the Southern States.
Professor Bingham's grandson, Wm. Bingham Lynch, of Florida, is likewise an
eminent teacher, while the husband of a great-granddaughter, Preston Gray, is
Principal of a flourishing academy called the Wm. Bingham School.

Dr. Caldwell has left a noble tribute to the character of Mr. Bingham,
the elder. He wrote, "His qualifications and virtues were of that
unobtrusive, but substantial cast, which merit and must secure the respect of
every upright and generous bosom. Whoever shall have occasion to be acquainted
with this man shall find him to be one of those whom the great poet of England
has denominated to be among 'The noblest works of God.' "

It was charged by a bitter partisan that Mr. Bingham was driven from
the University because of his being a Republican in politics. Dr. Caldwell
emphatically denied this. He asserted

"Mr. Bingham
was never exiled from the University. His virtues were too sound and
irreproachable for men of any political principles even to feel disposed to
injure him. When Mr. Bingham left us I can assure 'Citizen' that
his good qualities were not unknown to the Trustees or the Faculty." By
"Citizen" he meant an anonymous critic of the University.

The graduates of 1802 were Adlai Laurens Osborne, of Rowan; George
Washington Thornton, of Virginia; and Carey Whitaker, of Halifax County. All
were praised for proficiency in studies. Osborne became a lawyer in full
practice. Thornton was a physician.

Of the matriculates not graduating Jeremiah Battle was a physician of
prominence in Tarboro and Raleigh, and author of valuable medical monographs;
John Rutherford London, of Wilmington, a lawyer, planter and President of the
Bank of Cape Fear; John Duncan Toomer, a member of the Legislature, Judge of
the Superior and Supreme Courts.

Of the examination at the Commencement of 1802 we have a full report
by the Committee of Trustees, Messrs. Adlai Osborne, lawyer and Clerk of the
Superior Court of Rowan, Henry Potter, afterwards for many years Judge of the
United States District Court, a Trustee of the University from 1799 until his
death in 1856, and Charles W. Harris, lawyer at Halifax, late Professor, the
report being doubtless written by Harris. In the Preparatory School there were
the following classes, two in Reading and Spelling, two in Webster's Grammar,
one in Arithmetic to the Rule of Three, one in Latin Grammar, one in Cordery,
one in Latin Grammar, Aesop's Fables and Eutropius, one in Eramus, Selectae de Profanis
and Vocables, one in Cæsar, one in Latin Introduction, one in Sallust,
one in Ovid and Virgil's Eclogues, one in French Grammar, two in French Fables,
two in Telemachus, one in Gil Blas, one in Voltaire and Racine. It will be
difficult to show in modern days a better program of studies.

The Freshman class of the University proper was examined in three
studies, Virgil, Latin Introduction and Greek Testament; the Sophomore class in
Cicero, Geography, Arithmetic, Webster's Grammar, Syntax and Lowth's Grammar;
the Junior

class in Ewing's Synopsis, Algebra and
Ferguson's Astronomy; the Seniors in Adams' Defence and DeLolme on the English
Constitution. In the next year, 1803, by the Freshman class, in addition to
Virgil, the Odes of Horace were studied and the Dialogues of Lucian in the
place of the Greek Testament; in the Sophomore, the Satires, Epistles and Art
of Poetry of Horace were added; in the Junior Algebra, Euclid, Trigonometry,
Heights and Distances, Navigation and Logarithms, were in the place of
Astronomy; in the Senior class Blair's Lectures, Millot's Elements of History
and Paley's Moral Philosophy were substituted for Adams and DeLolme.

Daniel was a teacher and a member of the Legislature; Hall was a
teacher; Troy was a lawyer of standing, after being a Tutor in the University
Grammar School.

Of those who matriculated with them, Joel Battle was a planter and
cotton manufacturer, one of the first in the State, his factory on Tar river
beginning to work in 1820; Thomas H. Hall. a physician and Representative in
the State Legislature and sixteen years in Congress; George Phifer. of Cabarrus
County. a merchant and planter; Lemuel Sawyer, a representative in the State
Legislature and sixteen years in Congress, a Presidential Elector and an
author; Thomas Hart Benton, a member of the Tennessee Legislature, United
States Senator from Missouri for thirty years, author; Joseph Hawkins, State
Comptroller, Senator from Warren; Robert C. Hilliard, member of the Legislature
from Nash; Richmond Pearson, an enlightened agriculturist, father of Chief
Justice Pearson; Fleming Saunders, Judge of the General Court of Virginia.

the donor of the site
of the First Methodist church. Atlas Jones, son of Edmund Jones, one of the
University donors, was a Tutor in the U. of N. C. and a Trustee, a lawyer and
member of the Legislature from Moore County. The humorous lawyer, long a
popular Representative in the Legislature from Anson, Atlas J. Dargan, was
named for him. Sneed was a physician.

We are fortunately in the possession of the recollections of Dr. Wm.
Hooper, who entered the Preparatory Department in 1804. The Faculty consisted
of President Caldwell, Prof. Bingham and Tutor Henderson. The President was
known among the students as "Old Joe," though only thirty years of
age and extremely active. Bingham's nickname "Old Slick" was
because of the glossiness of his hairless scalp. Henderson's small size
suggested his nickname, Little Dick. Matthew Troy and Chesley Daniel presided
over the Preparatory Department. All things were fashioned after the model of
Princeton, which probably imitated the Scottish universities. Students were
required to rise at daylight in the winter and to go to prayers by candlelight.
Troy taught the Jugurtha and Cataline of Sallust and and to a well-behaved boy
was kindly, but quick with the lash on the idle and the wicked.

In the University proper Greek was required for a degree first in
1804. Thirty dialogues of Lucian were at first sufficient. It was thought
necessary to have a native Frenchman to teach properly his language, and
"to torment him and amuse themselves with his transports of rage and
broken English, was a regular part of the college fun." Chemistry and
Differential and Integral Calculus were not in the course.

The South Building was still unfinished. The rough huts of the
students in the corners, picturesque but unbeautiful, were still quiet retreats
in fair weather, but the skill of the occupants was not sufficient to protect
them from rain.

The Junior and Senior classes only recited once a day. Geometry was
studied from a manuscript copy of a treatise by Dr. Caldwell, which at a
subsequent period was printed. The copies of this made by the students swarmed
with errors, which fact was often alleged as an excuse for ignorance. The
Junior recitation was at 11 o'clock, after which some took to their

books, some stole off to hunting or fishing, while
others would make up a party for a dinner at James Craig's, called in
distinction from the habitation of a man of the same name on the Durham road,
"Fur (or far) Craig's." This was of chicken-pie or fried chicken
with biscuits and coffee, costing twenty-five cents a head, and was eagerly
enjoyed as vastly superior to the ordinary meals at Commons.

According to the recollections of Dr. Hooper the Commencement of 1804
fell on the 4th of July, and it was duly celebrated by the students. Thomas
Brown, of Bladen, was elected General and Orator, and Hyder Ali Davie second in
command, by the whole body of students. Says Dr. Hooper: "All things
being duly arranged the General, clad in full regimentals, with cocked hat and
dancing red plume, placed himself at the head of his troops, (for we were all
trained into soldiers for the nonce), and marched up to the foot of the
'Big Poplar' where was placed for him a rostrum, which he mounted,
and all the military disposing themselves before him, he gracefully took off
his plumed helmet and made profound obeisance to the army. I can tell you
nothing of the graduating class or their speeches. My childish fancy was taken
up with the military display, though we had no music to march to but the drum
and the fife."

If Dr. Hooper's memory did not fail him, the march of General Brown or
his oration was in addition to the program of the Faculty. The following is the
official statement:

Representatives of the two societies were to deliver orations on the
4th of July in honor of the day. These were Green H. Campbell, Cadwallader
Jones, Wm. B. Meares, David Hay, Thomas Davis and John Taylor.

On the 7th of July, Saturday, ten pupils of the Preparatory School
were to compete for first honor, they having already obtained equal distinction
in scholarship. Wm. Hooper is one of these.

On the evening of Monday, the 9th, the members of the Senior class in
the Preparatory School were to pronounce orations. Thomas Hawkins had the first
Salutatory in Latin; Alexius Foster, the second Salutatory in English; John
Brown,

the Valedictory, their scholarship being equal.
Lewis Duke had the first intermediate oration, William Henderson, the second,
and John Hooper, the third.

On Tuesday, the day before Commencement, fourteen students from the
Establishment, i. e., the University proper, were to pronounce orations.

On the forenoon of Wednesday, the 12th of July, the day of
Commencement, the members of the Junior class made their speeches. They were
eight in number.

In the afternoon the Senior class delivered their orations. Mr. Willie
Wm. Jones, "having the greatest pretensions," had the Latin
Salutatory, which was the prize speech until 1838.

To Mr. Atlas Jones, being second, was assigned the Oration in
History.

To Mr. Thomas Brown, the Valedictory, he being third in order.

Messrs. Richard Armistead and James Sneed delivered orations of their
own choice.

It should be noticed that the prefix "Mr." was only given
to members of the graduating class. I cannot find when this contraction of
Magister descended to the youngest Freshman; about the time perhaps when girls
of ten or eleven in boarding schools obtained from the teachers the prefix of
Miss (contracted from Mistress or Magisteress) as a handle to their surnames.
It is now fashionable in the larger universities to substitute Mr. for the
titles, once prized, of Professor or Dr. The Preparatory School was considered
an integral part of the institution and therefore had a place in the
exercises.

In this year began the practice of assigning special addresses to the
highest honor men. Moreover it was ordained that the Seniors should wear
uniforms of neat, plain homespun cloth, and the hope was expressed that their
example of Patriotism and Economy will be imitated hereafter. This was an
evidence of the deep feelings of resentment against England and France, which
led to the Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts of Congress.

CALDWELL PRESIDENT--DAVIE LEAVES THE STATE--UNIVERSITY
LIFE.

It has been mentioned that the Trustees had such an opinion of the
dignity of the office of President of the University that the appointment was
postponed from time to time. By 1804 Caldwell had shown such zeal and
intelligence as Presiding Professor that it was evident to all that "the
Hour and the Man" had come. The following ordinance, prepared by two of
the ablest members of the Board, Wm. Gaston and Duncan Cameron, was adopted
unanimously and similarly confirmed at the regular December meeting:

Whereas, experience has manifested the necessity of having a President
of the University, and it is doubtful whether the Trustees have the power of
making a permanent appointment except at an annual meeting.

Be it therefore ordained, That a President of
the University of North Carolina be appointed to hold office until the next
annual meeting of the Trustees, and that the said President discharge all those
duties which have heretofore been annexed to the office of Presiding
Professor.

It was declared beneath the dignity of the President to be dependent
on tuition fees, and a salary of 500 pounds or $1,000 was voted him.

A ballot being had Rev. Joseph Caldwell was unanimously elected. As a
Trustee said at the time the choice was on account of his great talents and
steady attachment to the University.

At the next annual meeting the election was made permanent.

The choice was most happy. Caldwell was a man of enlarged views, a
scholar especially in the realm of Mathematics, with a mind eager for the
acquisition of knowledge in all directions. He had the widest sympathy in all
enterprises promising to be beneficial to the institutions of the State. He was
a preacher of power. He was utterly fearless, indefatigable in the discharge of
every duty, skillful in the administration of the discipline in those days
deemed best, and which may have been demanded by the prevailing social habits.
He inspired respect, confidence, and, among the disorderly, fear. He was strong
of arm and swift of foot, and thought it not undignified to engage in a wrestle
or race with midnight disturbers. Above all the

Trustees
had such implicit reliance on his wisdom and devotion to the interests of the
institution that they gradually abandoned the pernicious practice of
interfering in the discipline and allowed the Faculty, under his dominating
influence, full freedom of action. Henceforth, while the habit of interfering
with the internal government was not for several years totally eradicated, yet,
whenever he showed decided displeasure, they surrendered to his will.

The President was still to fill the Chair of Mathematics. Wm. Bingham
was Professor of the Ancient Languages. Atlas Jones was his Tutor of all
work.

The President was elected a member of the Board of Trustees.

It was natural that, invested with as great autocratic power as he was
willing then to wield, he should assimilate the institution under his charge to
his alma mater. Steps were taken in this direction at once. The Trustees
ordained that no degree should be granted without a knowledge of Greek. No
student should enter the Junior class without passing an examination in 30
Dialogues of Lucian, Xenophen's Cyropedia and four books of the Iliad, the
Sophomore class of that year being allowed to pass on the Gospels of Matthew
and Luke, and the Senior class of the next year being allowed to substitute
French for Greek.

For entrance into the Freshman class thereafter the applicant must
pass on Greek Grammar, Cornelius Nepos or Selectae de
Profanis. These were to be taught in the Preparatory School. The
ordinance for granting degrees for English branches and the Sciences was
repealed.

To add dignity to Commencement exercises it was ordained that the
President should wear a black gown.

A year after the election of President Caldwell he made an
unsuccessful effort to induce Rev. Marcus George, of the Warrenton Academy, to
accept the Chair of Ancient Languages. He stated that he had heard of the
differences between Mr. George and his Trustees, arising from their
interference with his management in presence of the pupils and before the
public eye. The past struggles of the University were alluded to. They

sometimes threaten to terminate its existence, but
"amidst the darkest prospects it has always recovered with more certain
strength." Now it seemed to be almost out of reach of danger. Mr. George
was the teacher of Chief Justice Ruffin, Weldon N. Edwards, and other eminent
men, and had their unqualified regard.

Caldwell gives the number of students at seventy, more than ever
before in the University proper. The salary offered is $333.33 from the
Treasury and $7.50 from each student, amounting to more than $850
a year, paid semi-annually in advance. He added that no self-interest prompted
his letter, because as long as the vacancy should continue two-thirds of the
$850 would be added to his own salary, which implies that he was
temporarily teaching the classes studying the classics, as well as those in his
own department of Mathematics.

In a letter written to a friend in Connecticut, whose name is not
known, the President gives a short resume of his life since leaving Princeton
in 1796. It has a tone of sadness but firm resolve. "The difficulties,
trials and anxieties" he encountered were too numerous to be recorded
within a short compass. He tells of the recent death of his daughter and wife,
adding, "Such is the fallacy of human expectations and the transition of
present happiness." Treasurer Haywood, in a letter written at the same
period, thus consoles him: "Resignation, Religion and Time must be relied
on as the best Balm for the Heart torn and wounded by privations of the tender
and distressing kind you experience."

It was not many months after his elevation to the Presidency before
Caldwell received a flattering call to the Professorship of Mathematics and
Natural Philosophy in the College of South Carolina. It was conveyed by a
Trustee, Judge Wm. Johnson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, a fellow
student at Princeton, who stated that the salary as Professor was $1,500
per annum, and for preaching in the Chapel $500 was offered by the
citizens of Columbia. The expectation was expressed that he would soon become
President with a salary of $2,500 and a house.

of North Carolina at this offer. Treasurer Haywood
wrote: "I cannot but hope as a North Carolinian, that your attachment to
the infant institution of which you have the care, and other considerations
growing out of the remembrance of the anxious and fatherly part you have taken
in its continuace and prosperity for years past
and in the days of its greatest trials and adversity, will lead you rather to
consult your feelings than your interest." * * * "Remain with us
and go on to cherish and strengthen the child of your adoption by a continuance
of those parental cares and attentions which have so greatly contributed to the
support of its infancy." The members of the Senior class, Green H.
Campbell, John L. Taylor, John R. Donnell, John C. Montgomery, Gavin Hogg and
Stephen Davis, appealed to him in affectionate and laudatory terms, certifying
to the ability and the fairness of his administration. Among other things they
say "you have been the director of our youthful pursuits, our guide, our
teacher and our friend."

The Board of Trustees unanimously passed resolutions urging on him the
irreparable loss, which the University would sustain by his leaving it. The
result was, as he wrote to his Connecticut correspondent, that finding his
attachment grow to the place and disliking changes he declined the
appointment.

Of these, Joseph W. Hawkins was a physician and one of the promoters
and Directors of the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad; Benjamin F. Hawkins was
often Senator and Commoner from Franklin; Osborne was a surgeon U. S. A.,
killed at Fort Mims.

Of the contemporaneous matriculates, Joseph John Daniel was a member
of the Legislature, a Presidential Elector, a Judge of the Superior and Supreme
Courts, a delegate to the Convention of 1835; John H. Hawkins was often a
member of the Legislature from Warren; William Rufus King, a member of the
Legislature and of Congress from North Carolina, member of the Convention of
Alabama of 1819, United States Senator, Minister to France, Vice-President U.
S. A.

In this year the State and the University lost the valuable services
of William Richardson Davie. He had a career of uninterrupted success until
1802, when he was overwhelmed by the wave of Jeffersonian Republicanism which
swept over the State. He was defeated, as any Federalist would have been, by a
much inferior man, Philip W. Alston. Ardent as he was in his political
opinions, the pathway to official or Congressional usefulness was closed for an
indefinite period. Practice at the bar, of which he was one of the acknowledged
leaders, had no attractions to compensate him for the tedious journeys, often
in fervid heat or piercing cold or dismal rains, in perils of high waters, over
roads deep in sand or mud or cut up by dangerous chasms. An uncle, for whom he
was named, who supplied the place of a father, dying when he was a child, had
bequeathed to him a plantation in Lancaster County, South Carolina, on the
banks of the Catawba, near the line of the county of Mecklenburg, with a proper
complement of slaves, and he resolved to retire from public life and spend his
remaining years in the quiet and ease of a country gentleman. We have a letter
from him June 9, 1805, saddened in spirit, of which I give extracts. After
mentioning that he had returned from South Carolina on the 5th he adds:
"I have now again been two months on the road and return perfectly worn
down. My constitution cannot now bear that degree of suffering, privation and
incessant toil which, when I enjoyed youth and health, gave me spirits and
pleasure. Everything must yield to Time, and I have submitted with as good a
grace as possible. My plan of life is to be completely changed, and those
measures which are leading me to a Repose I have long sighed for, and which is
becoming every day more necessary for me, are to commence this fall. The plan
involves some painful sacrifices, but they are necessary and indispensable. A
separation from friends to whom my heart has been tenderly attached for many
years is among the most painful of all these. I anticipate it, I feel it, as a
prelude to that last separation to which the laws of our Nature compel us to
submit."

He was much concerned at the attacks on the University by the General
Assembly and chagrined at the inferiority of North

to
South Carolina in respect for higher education. He wrote: "the friends of
science in the other States regard the people of North Carolina as a sort of
semi-barbarians, among whom neither learning, virtue nor men of science possess
any estimation. In South Carolina a professorship is more eagerly canvassed for
than the Secretaryship of the government of the United States, the consequence
of that liberal spirit which has been displayed by their assembly. After a
handsome and permanent endowment of the offices of the institution they voted
$10,000 to purchase a library and philosophical apparatus. What a
contrast! Poor North Carolina!" We must believe that Davie shared in the
contempt which Federalist leaders generally had for the victorious Republicans,
and this feeling prompted these bitter words.

The prosperity of the University was still in his thoughts. He advised
that the choice of the new Professor of Languages should be given to the
President, and that as a rule he should select all inferior officers, as the
whole responsibility rested on him.

After his removal to South Carolina Davie was never induced to emerge
from the retirement of a country gentleman, except to be President of the State
Agricultural Society. During the War of 1812 he was tendered the position of
Major-General, and the Senate confirmed the nomination. His constitution had
been too much undermined to allow him to accept it. He died November 8, 1820,
leaving a reputation as a soldier, a statesman, a lawyer and broad-minded
citizen, of which the University and the State are proud.

Lt.-Gov. Francis D. Winston sends me a letter written July 31, 1816,
by General Jeremiah Slade, long State Senator from Martin County, to his son
Alfred, a student in the University, containing an eulogy on Davie, which shows
the strong hold he had on his party friends. After praising the location of the
University as eminently suitable to study, he says: "This leads me to
regard with feelings of admiration little short of adoration the character of
the father of the institution, Wm. R. Davie, who with a flow of eloquence which
did honor to his head, and a sympathy which did honor to his heart (for he shed

tears at the prospect of a failure of the Bill of
Incorporation as freely as a father would for the loss of a favorite child), he
bore down the powerful opposition, which was raised against the bill. And
altho' we greatly admire the site of his choice, yet we still more wonder how
he should have discovered it. * * * After the Act of Incorporation was granted
it was by his exertions that the institution went into operation. * * * You may
be led to inquire why so great and so good a man should bury himself in the
shades of retirement. It was at the time when mad Democracy got the upper hand
of the Constitution and the Washingtonian administration, he pursued the
dictates of that sound maxim, 'when rogues bare sway the post of honor is
a private station.' "

Andrew Rhea, Professor of Ancient Languages from 1806 to 1814, was a
Virginian. He is described by Davie in 1797 as "said to be of middle age
with a family, of six years experience in teaching, and highly spoken
of." He seems to have escaped animadversion but has left no traditional
reputation as to learning or teaching powers. That he was a widower is proved
by his being required to sleep in the University Building and preside at the
Steward's table. The Raleigh Register says he was a
very distinguished scholar, but Dr. Hooper describes him as "a
good-natured, indolent man." I give some reminiscences of Dr. Hooper,
found in his address at the University in 1859, during the visit of President
Buchanan. He was a student in the Preparatory Department and then entered the
University in 1806.

"As the only dormitory that had a roof was too crowded for
study, many students left their rooms as a place of study entirely, and built
cabins in the corners of the unfinished brick walls of the South Building, and
quite comfortable cabins they were. In such a cabin they hibernated and burned
their mid-night oil. As soon as spring brought back the swallows and the
leaves, they emerged from their den and chose some shady retirement where they
made a path and a promenade, and in that embowered promenade all diligent
students of those days had to follow the steps of science, to wrestle with its
difficulties, and to treasure up their best equipments: Ye remnants of the
Peripatetic School!

"They lived sub divo, like the birds
that caroled over their heads. "But how," you will say, "did
they manage in rainy weather?" Well, nothing was more common than, on a
rainy day, to send in a petition to be excused from recitation, which petition
ran in this stereotype phrase: "The inclemency of the weather rendering
it impossible to prepare the recitation, the Sophomore class respectfully
request Mr. Rhea to excuse them from recitation this afternoon." The
petitions were granted.

The following relates to studies in the Junior class: "The
Juniors had their first taste of Geometry, in a little elementary treatise,
drawn up by Dr. Caldwell, in manuscript, and not then printed. Copies were to
be had only by transcribing, and in process of time they, of course, were
swarming with errors. But this was a decided advantage to the Junior, who stuck
to his text, without minding his diagram. For, if he happened to say that the
angle at A was equal to the angle of B, when in fact the diagram showed no
angle at B at all, but one at C, if Doctor Caldwell corrected him, he had it
always in his power to say: "Well, that was what I thought myself, but it
ain't so in the book, and I thought you knew better than I." We may well
suppose that the Doctor was completely silenced by this unexpected application
of the argumentum ad hominem."

"Greek, after its introduction, became the bug-bear of college.
Having been absent when my class began it, I heard, on my return, such a
terrific account of it that I no more durst encounter the Greeks than Xerxes
when he fled in consternation across the Hellespont, after the battle of
Salamis. Rather than lose my degree, however, after two years I plucked up
courage and set doggedly and desperately to work, prepared hastily thirty
Dialogues of Lucian, and on that stock of Greek was permitted to graduate. As
for Chemistry and Differential and Integral Calculus and all that, we never
heard of such hard things. They had not then crossed the Roanoke, nor did they
appear among us till they were brought in by the Northern barbarians about the
year 1818." The Doctor alludes to the

Cameron was a member of the Legislature, a Major in the War of 1812,
Consul to Vera Cruz; Judge of the United States District Court of Florida. He
was lost at sea in journeying from Savannah to New York. He was a brother of
Judge Duncan Cameron.

James Martin was a son of Col. James Martin, of the Revolution, who
was one of the Commissioners to locate the State Capital--hence Martin
street. After spending a year at the University as Tutor, he settled in
Salisbury as a lawyer and had a wide reputation. He was Superior Court Judge
from 1826 to 1835, and Senator from Rowan in 1823. He was a Trustee of the
University from 1823 to 1836, the last year probably being the date of his
removal to Mobile, Alabama. He became Judge of the Circuit Court of his adopted
State.

Of the others, Hatch was a planter, and Henderson a physician in
Kentucky.

Of the non-graduating contemporaneous matriculates, Wm. Belvidere
Meares was a prominent lawyer and member of the Legislature; Archibald H.
Sneed, a Major U. S. A.; James Young, of Granville, a physician; John Burgess
Baker, a physician and a member of the Legislature from Gates; Cullen Battle, a
prominent physician and planter, first in this State and then in Alabama; James
Smith Battle, an influential planter in Edgecombe County; Thomas Burgess, a
lawyer of large practice in Halifax; William C. Love, of Chapel Hill, a
Representative in Congress from the Salisbury District; William Miller, member
of the Legislature, Speaker of the House, Attorney-General, Governor, Charge
d'Affaires to Guatemala.

In 1807 the honor was conferred on President Caldwell of being
selected by the Commission as the astronomical expert to finish running the
boundary line between North Carolina,

South Carolina and
Georgia. Governor Nathaniel Alexander applied to the Board of Trustees for
permission for him to act, and General John Steele offered to resign as
Commissioner if necessary to secure him, saying, "My services may perhaps
be useful, his, I think, are essential." The Trustees with some
reluctance for fear that the discipline of the University might suffer, granted
the request, with the proviso that in his opinion Professor Rhea could
efficiently act as temporary head of the institution. The reputation of
President Caldwell was much enhanced by his intelligent conduct of the
delimitation of this boundary. His work was satisfactory to the Commissioners
of the States interested, namely, John Steele, Montfort Stokes and Robert
Burton for North Carolina, and Joseph Blythe, Henry Middleton and John
Blasingame for South Carolina. Owing to the uncertainty in the description in
the act, the Commissioners recommended to the two States certain changes, which
the Legislatures adopted. Thomas Love, Montfort Stokes and John Patton for
North Carolina, and Joseph Blythe, John Blassengame (so spelt) and George W.
Earle for South Carolina, appointed to run the line by the new agreement, found
that impossible to be literally carried into effect, and reported a change,
which was adopted by both States in 1815. The line between North Carolina and
Georgia was confirmed in 1819.

Donnell was the best scholar. He became a lawyer of large practice, a
Superior Court Judge and, marrying a daughter of Governor Richard Dobbs
Spaight, was one of the wealthiest men of the State. Gavin Hogg was a Tutor of
the University for a year, then settled in Bertie County as a lawyer, and had a
large practice and wide reputation. Subsequently he removed to Raleigh and was
appointed by the General Assembly, in conjunction with James Iredell and
William H. Battle, to prepare the Revised Statutes. He entered on the work with
zeal and ability, but was forced by ill health to resign and Frederick Nash was
substituted. By goodly income from his profession

and by marriage he became the
possessor of a large fortune. Davis was a wealthy physician of Warrenton.
Montgomery and Taylor were likewise physicians. Campbell was a teacher, lawyer
and member of the Legislature of Georgia.

Of the matriculates four years before, Henry Chambers, of Rowan, was a
talented physician; William Green was a member of the Legislature from Warren;
James M. Henderson was a physician; Henry Young Webb, member of the
Legislature, Judge in Alabama Territory; John Henry Eaton, U. S. Senator,
Secretary of War, Covernor of Florida Territory, U. S. Minister to Spain,
author of "Life of Jackson," husband of the beautiful and much
talked of "Peggy O'Neil."

The best scholars were Lewis Williams and Thomas L. Williams, the
former speaking the Salutatory, the latter the Valedictory. The others honored
were Wm. Green, John B. Giles, Alfred Gatlin and John Coleman.

Of this class, Wm. Henderson, of Chapel Hill, was Tutor for one year,
beginning in 1811. He was afterwards a physician, practicing in Williamston,
Martin County, until his death September 15, 1838. He was born in 1789, the
second son of Major Pleasant Henderson and his wife Sarah Martin.

Lewis Williams was Tutor 1810-12. He was a native of Surry; served
1813 and 1814 as a representative in the State Legislature. In 1815 he was
elected a member of Congress and served continuously until his death February
12, 1842. He was most highly respected and was known as the Father of the
House; was a Trustee of the University from 1813 to his death. His brother,
Thomas Lanier Williams, was a Judge of the Supreme Court and also a Chancellor
of Tennessee.

in Congress, while Giles was also a Trustee of the
University, a member of the General Assembly and of the Convention of 1835. Wm.
P. Ferrand, a physician, was a Commoner from Onslow; and James A. Harrington,
son of Gen. Henry Wm. Harrington, of the Revolution, was a member of the South
Carolina Legislature and a large planter; Benjamin D. Rounsaville, a lawyer.
John Coleman was a physician.

There were some prominent matriculates not graduating with this class:
Daniel M. Forney, of Lincoln County, a Commoner; Ransom Hinton, a physician in
Wake; John D. Jones, Speaker of the House of Commons, a member of the
Convention of 1835, and a merchant and banker of Wilmington; John Neale, a
Commoner from Brunswick; John Owen, a Commoner from Bladen, Governor 1828-30
and President of the Harrisburg Convention which nominated Harrison. It is said
that he refused to run as Vice-President, and thus missed the Presidency. John
Neale, a member of the Legislature.

With this class Greek was studied in the Freshman year and the Iliad
in the Sophomore. The best scholar was William Hooper, the next Maxwell
Chambers, and then John B. Bobbitt and John C. Williams. The most eminent was
William Hooper who became a Baptist preacher, Professor of Languages and then
of Rhetoric in the University, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the South
Carolina College, President of Wake Forest College, and author of printed
addresses and sermons of rare excellence.

Chambers became a physician in Salisbury of good reputation. He must
not be confounded with the merchant of New Orleans, a native of North Carolina,
of the same name, who bequeathed his property to Davidson College--only
part of which could be taken under its charter. Bobbitt was a classical teacher
all his life and was highly regarded as such in the counties

of Nash and Franklin. Many of the
students prepared by him took a high stand at the University. Williams was a
member of the Legislature; Gilchrist, Polk and Mebane, likewise in the General
Assembly, and the last a Trustee of the University.

Abner Wentworth Clopton, a native of Virginia, probably Chesterfield
County. He was a Tutor for one year beginning with 1809, when he sent in his
resignation, concluded in these naive words: "I find it utterly
inconvenient to receive no more than $250 a year. I am willing to serve
for $500 a year, and am richly worth it." The Trustees agreed to
give him $400 on account of his special merits, but he was transferred
to the headship of the Grammar School, to have all tuition receipts and
$100 bonus. The tuition charges were $12 for the first and
$8 for the second term, but during the War of 1812 he was allowed in
addition $5 per annum. He was a very efficient teacher and the
reputation of his school was high under his administration. Besides being a
teacher, he was a physician and likewise a Baptist preacher. He was evidently a
shrewd trader. He induced Rev. Wm. Hooper to agree to give him $2,500
for his residence, the four acres now the Battle lot, then having indifferent
houses, a price generally thought to be $1,000 in excess. Hooper soon
repented of his bargain but Clopton held him to it with a hawk's grip. After
leaving Chapel Hill he settled in Virginia, near the residence of John
Randolph, of Roanoke, who highly appreciated him as a preacher.

Among the members of the class who did not graduate, John F. Phifer
was a Commoner, Horace B. Satterwhite, a physician of Salisbury; Henry H.
Watters, an influential planter of Brunswick County; Bartlett Yancey, one of
the most eminent men of the State in his day, Speaker of the State Senate,
Representative in Congress, an active Trustee of the University, and a Promoter
of Public School Education; Wm. S. Blackman, a Commoner from Sampson;
Abridgeton S. H. Burgess, a physician in Virginia.

Jones was a physician; Taylor, Attorney-General and Trustee of the
University; Witherspoon, Presbyterian divine at Hillsboro and elsewhere,
President of Miami College, Doctor of Divinity from his Alma Mater and of Laws
from Princeton. Mark Alexander, of Virginia, was with this class in the Senior
year. He became a member of Congress and member of the Virginia Convention of
1829-'30.

Of the non-graduating matriculates Samuel P. Ashe, of Halifax, and
Thomas J. Singleton, of Craven County, were members of the Legislature.

The honorary degrees were as follows: Doctor of Divinity to Rev. David
Caldwell, eminent teacher and member of the Constitutional Convention of 1788;
Rev. James Hall, the preacher-captain in the Revolution, Classical Teacher,
Principal of Clio's Nursery; James McRee, pastor of Centre church, Mecklenburg
County.

Master of Arts to the following: Rev. Samuel Craighead Caldwell,
pastor and teacher in Mecklenburg County; Rev. John Robinson, pastor of Poplar
Tent church; Rev. William Leftwich Turner; Rev. James Wallis, Principal of
Providence Academy in Mecklenburg; Rev. John McKamie Wilson, pastor at Rocky
River and Principal of a Classical School.

Commencement was ordered to be on the 24th of May, in 1812, on the
first Thursday in June, with a six weeks' vacation thereafter, and another four
weeks' vacation beginning on the second Thursday in December. In the next year
the last Thursday in June was substituted for the first.

The evil effects of the secession of 1805 and subsequent troubles were
especially evident at the Commencement of 1811, there being no graduates,
although the honorary degree of A.B. was awarded to John Ambrose Ramsey, a
former student of high rank, who afterwards represented Moore County in the
General Assembly. Nor were there any matriculates of note with the class.

In order to show the stately dignity of the old times I give a copy of
a Doctor of Divinity Diploma (D.D.) granted by the University in 1810 to the
eminent classical teacher, David Caldwell. It is noticeable that the Latin of
"Chapel Hill" is "Sacrarii-Mons,"

or Mount of
the Chapel. Those who worshipped in Buffalo church probably did not know it by
the name of Bubulus, which some authorities say designated a kind of antelope.
Alamance is correctly spelt Allemance, a name brought over from Germany by the
settlers from that country. It savors of pathos to find a document so
formidable signed by a President, one Professor and two Tutors, being the only
Socii, i. e., Faculty, in charge of the University.

As emphasizing the unfortunate interference by the Trustees in the
discipline of the institution, I give the substance of a letter by the
Secretary, Adjutant-General Robert Williams, to Dr. Caldwell in 1810,
communicating officially a resolution of the Board, recommending the
re-admission of a dismissed student. The Secretary, himself a Trustee,
expressed the hope that the Faculty will not heed it. "If you will make
the stand, Sir, it will in preference to all other methods have a tendency to
bring the Board to a proper sense of their duties. They cannot dispense with
your services--for you have more friends on

the
Board than any other man whatever." * * * "Mr. Alves and myself
made talks against the report but it was carried by one majority." This
action of the Board is curious as giving a good reason for its rejection, yet
favoring its adoption. "In their opinion Mr. Long did justly and
completely forfeit his rights as a student * * * through his disorderly
behavior, rudeness and disobedience. * * * They find a difficulty in
recommending that course which in consideration of the parents of the young man
would be most consonant with their feelings." The regard for the feelings
of the parents weighed down the good of the University. Dr. Caldwell endorsed
on the letter of General Williams, "A new specimen of enforcement of
authority."

President Caldwell responded with hardly suppressed indignation in a
letter addressed to the Board. "If this College is to be maintained the
establishment must somehow be altered." He offered his resignation of the
Presidency, hoping that it would be accepted at an early a date as possible,
and at the end of six months absolutely. He was willing to remain in a
subordinate capacity on a salary of $800 a year, so that $700 and
the President's house might go towards the salary of the new executive.

General Williams was right; the Trustees could not manage without
Caldwell. He was induced by implied, if not expressed, promises of a change of
policy, to retain his Presidency.

In 1811 occurred an outbreak, the facts of which are not recorded. It
is mentioned in a letter by a Trustee, Dr. Calvin Jones, then living in
Raleigh, to Dr. Caldwell. Dr. Jones says that both inhabitants and strangers
think that there never was a more clearly marked case to justify the most
vigorous exercise of authority. The students met with reproof from everybody,
whether gentle or simple. Their crestfeathers were completely down. Dr. Jones
was greatly surprised at the effort of Governor Stone to get two of them into
the Raleigh Academy; while he was not surprised that Mr. Sherwood Haywood, a
"good, polite, clever, worthy man, who never contradicted anyone in his
life," should have seconded his efforts. From this we see that the
authorities of the University objected to their

dismissed students being received into preparatory schools, as well as
colleges.

The insubordination, whatever it was, caused all the members of the
Senior class, except John A. Ramsay, to forfeit their diplomas. The others were
Mark Alexander, Thomas J. Faddis, Wm. Gilchrist, Frank Hawkins, Wm. J. Polk and
William Moore, who passed their November examinations. They were all good men.
Moore was the best scholar in the class; Gilchrist was next, afterwards a
member of the Tennessee Legislature. Faddis, Hawkins and Polk were physicians
of good standing, the latter of high reputation in Columbia, Tennessee. They
obtained their diplomas in 1813; the others did not return.

Of these Graham was Secretary of the State of Tennessee, of great
service to his Alma Mater in securing her military warrants; Hogg, McLean and
Pinkston, physicians; Hooper, a lawyer; McQueen, a minister; Roulhac,
son-in-law of Chief Justice Ruffin, a highly esteemed merchant of Raleigh;
Webb, Professor of Ancient Languages in the University in 1799, as has been
narrated.

Of the non-graduates, Richard T. Brownrigg, of Chowan, was a planter
and owner of fisheries, also a member of the Legislature. He removed to
Columbia, Mississippi. David Dancy was a physician of standing, whose life was
accidentally cut short.

The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) was conferred on Rev.
Ashbel Green, D.D., President of the college of New Jersey (Princeton); of
Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) on Rev. James Patriot Wilson, a clergyman of
Philadelphia, author of works on religious subjects; and on Rev. George Addison
Baxter, afterwards President of Washington and of Hampden-Sidney Colleges, and
Professor of Theology in Union Theological Seminary, also an author.

The following shows the compensation of officers, before the election
of Chapman:

President Caldwell, salary

$1000.

share of tuition

375.

$1375.

Prof. Rhea

800.

Tutor Lewis Williams

300.

Tutor William Hooper

300.

George Johnston, Master of Grammer
School, all tuition and

100.

Robert Williams, Secretary-Treasurer

200.

Wm. Barbee, Supt. of Buildings and Grounds

20.

Total for salaries

$3095.

BY-LAWS.

From time to time the By-Laws or, as they were called, Ordinances were
revised and much enlarged. I give some of the changes, deemed of interest. The
Faculty consisted of the President, Professors and Tutors, the President having
two votes in case of a tie.

They must not be members of either of the societies or even attend a
meeting.

Each was bound to enforce the laws and report all breaches.

They must hold monthly meetings and a report of their proceedings must
be submitted to the Trustees. A history of each student must be kept.

The winter session must begin on the 1st of January, if there one
student to form a class, if not as soon as there shall be.

Examinations for admission were in the presence of all the
Faculty.

Tuition and board at Steward's Hall were payable in advance. If the
student arrived at the middle of the session or afterwards, he paid
one-half.

Each student must buy a copy of the laws for 12 1-2 cents. The
certificate of membership was endorsed on the copy; and each must pledge his
truth and honor to obey the laws.

The Faculty were authorized to dismiss a student for general
worthlessness, without specifying a particular offence.

Even when not in study hours students must observe "proper
silence and respectful deportment."

Two or three declaimed before the Faculty each afternoon. There were
no exemptions except for natural impediment.

On Saturday forenoons all students recited Grammar, or passages in
Latin or Greek, or read pieces of their own composition.

The annual examinations, (Commencements), began on the 22d of June, or
on the 23d if that day was Sunday.

If one was absent he was examined before all the Faculty.

Habitual indolence, or absences, was punishable according to the
aggravation.

Deficient students were either publicly mentioned as bad scholars, or
admonished privately, or "de-classed."

The Faculty assigned duties at Commencement. Refusal to perform them
was punishable by loss of diplomas.

Instruction in morals and religion was required.

Insults to the people of the village and attacks on property were
forbidden, and the village could not be visited in study hours without
permission. Students were prohibited to "make horse races" or bets;
to keep cocks or fowls of any kind or for any purpose; to keep dogs or
firearms, and to use firearms without permission.

For intoxication the punishment was for the first offence admonition
before the Faculty; for a repetition public admonition or suspension.

For refusal to inform on a fellow-student the offender was admonished
or suspended. For combination against a law, or to offer disrespect to the
Faculty, all offenders, or leaders only, could be punished.

On Sundays all ordinary diversion and exercises must be laid aside.
Students could not fish, or hunt, or "walk far abroad," but what
distance should be called "far" was not defined. Manual or corporal
labor could not be without permission.

Adjectives were exhausted in the denunciation of swearing;
"Profane, blasphemous, impious language" prohibited. Admonition
awaited all caught lying or using indecent gesture or language. If the
falsehood was direct and malicious the punishment was suspension or
expulsion.

If a student should refuse or delay opening his door when ordered by a
member of the Faculty, it could be forced at his expense, and the occupant
required to pay damages and be otherwise punished if found breaking any other
law. And so, if a student should be sent for and refuse to appear, it was
"a high contempt of authority."

Rooms must be kept clean, students must not introduce filth of any
kind therein, nor throw on the walls, nor within twenty yards of the building,
any filth or dirt under penalty of being censured and forced to remove the
same.

Students were required to appear neat and cleanly, or be admonished,
but they were recommended to be plain in dress. After January 1, 1805, they, as
well as the Faculty, were ordered to have black gowns and wear the same in
Person Hall at public meetings, but students must not wear a hat in the
buildings.

No student should build a hut, or retain one already built, without
permission. This refers to the practice of those seeking privacy, having rough
shelters in the corners of the partly finished South or "Main"
Building, or under some umbrageous tree.

Nor could students go out of sight of the buildings, or hearing of the
bell in study hours, or at any other time when the bell might call them to
duty.

Rooms were not retained for anyone absent at the beginning of the
session. At one period the students were allowed to race for them, as soon as
prayer was finished, on the first morning.

If the Faculty deemed any house improper for boarders, on account of
irregular manner of living, or disorderly or pernicious examples, they may
report it to the Trustees.

As a rule there could be no rooming out of the University building
until there were four in each room, but exceptions could be made if necessary
for health, a certificate of a physician being the only evidence of this
necessity.

At the first ringing of the bell in the morning all should rise. At
the second all should go to the Chapel.

Students were forbidden to eat or drink at a tavern without
permission. By "tavern" is meant places where alcoholic liquors
were sold for drinks.

Dismission or expulsion was the punishment for associating with an
expelled student. All universities and colleges were to be notified of the fact
of expulsion and requested not to receive the offender.

Those suspended must not reside within two miles of Chapel Hill.

The Presiding Professor must notify parents of proper expenses and
request them not to furnish their sons with additional funds.

The Faculty shall have power to forbid dangerous games, and it was
solemnly provided that no ball or other substitute used in licensed plays and
pastimes should be composed of harder material than wound yarn covered with
leather. This probably was intended for base-ball, in which it was the practice
to put out a player by hitting him with a thrown ball while off base.

For settlements of controversies between Faculty and students and
officers of the institution, individually and collectively, six Trustees were
annually appointed, who, with the President, made a quasi-court, any three of
whom were a quorum. Their decision stood until reversed by the Board of
Trustees.

STEWARDS.

After the resignation of John Taylor, usually known as Buck Taylor,
Pleasant Henderson, a Major of Cavalry under Col. Malready in the Revolutionary
War, the youngest son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Williams) Henderson, brother of
Judge Richard, who was father of Archibald and Chief Justice Henderson, was for
some years the Steward of the University. Besides this position, he was during
the sessions of the General Assembly Reading Clerk of the House of Commons. He
married Sarah, daughter of Col. James Martin, brother of Governor Alexander
Martin. The late Hamilton C. Jones, Reporter of the Supreme Court, married his
daughter. He removed to Tennessee in 1831.

The next Steward was Samuel Love, who came to Chapel Hill from
Virginia. His son, Wm. Caldwell Love, was a student in 1802, but did not
graduate, settled in Salisbury as a

lawyer, served one
term in Congress, and was one of our Trustees from 1814 to 1818.

Mr. Love was succeeded by Wm. Barbee, son of Christopher Barbee, one
of the donors of the University site. He lived for some time in Chapel Hill and
then succeeded to part of his father's land, his home being on a conspicuous
hill called "the Mountain," about two and a half miles east from
Piney Prospect. As the village became more populous boarding at Commons became
less favored, especially among the wealthier students. The compulsory feature
was relaxed and finally abolished. Mr. Barbee was a member of the House of
Commons in 1819.

In 1810 it was concluded to create a new office with a salary of
$20 a year, called Superintendency of Buildings and Lands. The first
Superintendent was John Taylor, the elder, usually called Buck Taylor. He soon
gave place to Wm. Barbee, the Steward, who held both offices for several
years.

BEHAVIOR OF OLD-TIME STUDENTS.

The records show that some of the students were abundantly wild in the
early sessions of the University. In addition to the riots of 1798-99 the
Faculty records, though incomplete, show that drinking and fights and rowdyism
were too frequent. A distinguished statesman, Thomas Hart Benton, figured in a
dangerous fray, drawing a pistol on Archibald Lytle, of Tennessee, the
difficulty occasioned by Benton's having struck his adversary's nephew, a lad
in the Grammar School. Lytle excused himself for not engaging in a duel with
Benton by the plea that he had come a long distance at great expense for an
education and could not afford to be expelled. We have such entries as these:
"H. M. expelled for gross insolence in the Preparatory School. T. N.
suspended for six months and recommended for expulsion for cutting C. I. over
the eye with a stick." The Trustees declined to expel him. As to the
charge of theft brought against one who afterwards became famous in the
councils of the nation, I conclude that it arose from a mistake, distorted by
the fierce party spirit of the day.

A member of the Grammar School, "M. J., severely whipped for
stabbing O. J. with a pen-knife in the shoulders." "W. R.

suspended for kindling a fire in the house of the
Trustees with intent to burn it." "J. G. was suspended for stealing
beehives." Mr. Caldwell reports to the Trustees: "It is no uncommon
thing for the students to go out at night at a very late hour and take
bee-hives from the inhabitants of the village and the country round. They have
found safety in the caution they practice."

Other entries are: "W. K. admonished before all the students for
exploding powder and refusing to go into recitation when ordered."
"R. A. carried a keg of whiskey into his room, and he, A. J. and R. C.
had a spree. He also associated with two suspended persons. R. A. was sentenced
(offence not given) to sign a confession and read it before the students
assembled for prayers. H. N. was expelled by the Trustees for gross insolence
in the Preparatory School."

At a somewhat later period H. B. was expelled for insolence to the
President while suppressing a disturbance, firing pistols in the buildings and
breaking a window-glass over the head of Tutor Clopton while holding
recitation. I do not think that the glass came into actual contact with the
Tutor's cranium.

R. S. was expelled for firing pistols and for throwing stones at the
Faculty. C. W. had the milder punishment of suspension for the rest of the
session, as he only tried to break open a Tutor's door, and helped carry off a
carriage and a gate.

J. R. received a forced vacation of six months for firing a pistol in
college and helping block up the Chapel door, while J. A. and R. B. got four
months for firing pistols only. Public admonition before Trustees, Faculty and
students was meted to J. W. for carrying off a carriage and gate and beam of
the bell, J. P. for rolling stones in the passage of the building, J. L. for
abstracting the irons of the bell, R. L., S. K. and J. M. for carrying off a
carriage, and N. B. for threats of violence to Mr. Johnston, the teacher of the
Academy.

A brawl, which created great excitement, occurred during the
Commencement of 1804 between Henry Chambers and a son of General Davie, Hyder
Ali, humorously described by Dr. Hooper. The annual ball was held in the
dining-room of Steward's Hall. The non-dancers stood around witnessing the

amusement, and among those in front stood Chambers.
While dancing Davie trod twice on the toes of Chambers, who demanded an
explanation in such threatening manner as to incense the offender. Whereupon,
though there was disclaimer of intention to insult, a fight ensued in the yard
of the dwelling, Davie using a knife on account, he alleged, of the disparity
in size between himself and antagonist, who was wounded, but not dangerously.
The Trustees, being in session, tried the case, and on each signing a written
declaration of regret and admission of being in fault, graciously pardoned the
combatants. Davie expressed himself as especially grieved because he had used a
weapon when his adversary was unarmed.

T. J. fired a pistol in college but afterwards helped to put down
disorder; C. D. C. "mischeviously
trimmed" a horse in Mr. Taylor's enclosure, but satisfied the owner. The
sentences were as follows The pistol-firer and horse-trimmer were admonished
before the Faculty and students; the carriage-taker and Chapel-blocker above
mentioned, were admonished before the Board of Trustees.

I give these instances in order to show the character of the pranks
thought to be "smart" and funny. There were many students who
attended to their duties faithfully and obeyed the rules. For example the idea
of Vice-President King or Governor Branch sallying out at midnight and stealing
bee-hives is inconceivable. There were many like them.

The difficulties of government were greatly increased by the existence
in the village of one of those fruitful sources of evil, a grog-shop, then
called tavern. An Ordinance was adopted prohibiting the students visiting it,
but of course it was brutum
fulmen. Public opinion by no means condemned drinking ardent
spirits, and for many years, if the drinking by students did not amount to
excess, it was not regarded as a serious offence. The University law was
directed mainly against intoxication. To preserve order and detect offenders,
the Tutors were charged with the combined duties of detectives and constables.
They must with eager ears listen for sounds of revelry or even innocent jollity
and forthwith disperse the assembly, and report its members for punishment.
Besides this some Professor was ordered to visit the rooms each morning. Of
course, in addition

to constant collision with
high-spirited young men, such supervision had the tendency to impair their
self-respect, and to make them regard the Faculty as their natural enemies.

In addition to the foregoing I find in Caldwell's handwriting a
memorandum of what he called "notable transactions," in 1802:

On the 28th of May a calf was placed in the Chapel and the benches
pushed up against the pulpit. On the 5th of June a fence was built around the
door of one Nutting and across the road. Captain Caldwell's house was stoned.
Before these offences were committed the house of the Steward, Major Henderson,
was stoned, one of his buildings overturned, his gate taken from its hinges and
placed upon the pulpit.

On Sunday night the 27th of June a bee-hive was stolen from John
Taylor, carried to the Preparatory School-house, the honey taken out and daubed
over the floor. The hive was left in the woods.

Saturday night, 14th of August, Yeargin's corn was cut. A great number
of toad-frogs and terrapins thrown into Monsieur Molie's room. He was also
insulted with the utmost license in the dining-room and elsewhere; "nor
was decency or order anywhere observed." In the dining-room stamping and
outrageous insults; outside hollowing and extreme disorder.

Wednesday night, 25th of August, Molie's room was burst open and a
bee-hive placed in it. His bed was filled with a vast quantity of hair. The
intention was professed to drive him from the University. President Caldwell
adds the astounding information that this method of getting rid of officers by
unremitting insult, abuse and violence has grown up with the institution. It
was to put a stop to outrages like the foregoing that the ill-starred monitor
experiment, hereafter to be described, was made.

President Caldwell frequently bewailed the committal of secret
offences, and the impossibility of procuring evidence against the offenders.
The students on the other hand evidently resented his acquiring information in
any manner not known to them. On one occasion, in 1810, pistols were fired in
the building, and stones thrown at the windows of a recitation room

while the Professor and his class were at their duties.
Some of the offenders were suspended and others reprimanded. Forty-six
students, a majority, including many good, orderly men, presented a paper
stating that they were "bound by every sentiment of honor and justice to
request the names of those who had given secret information to the
Faculty." They charged that injustice had been done to some of those
disciplined and urged the "impropriety of such information being received
as evidence." "Falsehoods will be invented and we will be convicted
without knowing our accusers, or having an opportunity of acquitting ourselves
of the charges against us." * * * "We anxiously hope that by
granting our petition you will put it out of the power of envious and malicious
informers privately injuring the innocent." The journals of the Faculty
are so imperfect that it is not known how this attack on the fair dealing of
the Faculty was received, but it is certain that the name of the informer was
not given up.

In the spring of 1803, for some cause not now apparent, bitter
quarrels occurred among some of the students, convulsing the student body and
threatening to result in four or five duels. Challenges were given and
accepted. There was one meeting, as the journal states that Samuel G. Hopkins,
of Kentucky, and John H. Hawkins, of North Carolina, were expelled; the one for
being in a duel and the other for acting as second, but further particulars are
not given. Three or four other conflicts seemed imminent. Unable to cope with
the difficulty Caldwell called in the help of the Trustees. The President of
the Board, a Continental officer of the Revolution, who fought all the way from
Brandywine to Eutaw, Col. Wm. Polk, famous for his chivalric courage and high
sense of honor, responded with a letter to the students at large, blazing with
earnest depreciation of their conduct. He is shocked by the report of the
disgraceful and disorderly state of the University. I give a few sentences of
his vigorous letter: "That students, almost grown, should at this late
and inauspicious day, be guilty of the deplorable madness and folly of rashly
sacrificing their character and fame, and laying in dust and ashes the fairest
prospects of their country, through the destruction of her best anchor and
hope, her University, is too much. It is folly in its most gigantic

and hideous shape; insanity replete with consequences
too direful and deleterious to be tolerated. In fine a deed of the kind
meditated would operate as the worst of treason against the State." But
for the arrival of three students, Searcy, James Benton and Nunn, who gave the
information that the dangers were passed, he would have collected some Trustees
and with them visited the University "with the fixed determination to
expel with the most marked ignominy and disgrace any student guilty of giving,
bearing or accepting a challenge." If the thing was not ended he urged
Caldwell to send expresses for General Davie, Walter Alves, Richard Bennehan
and Duncan Cameron, and notify him.

Col. Polk was a stern, determined, strong man, physically and
mentally, ready to fight any man on provocation, of commanding influence by
reason of his war record, unyielding will, a mind, not great but strong,
vigorous and well-balanced, and extensive possessions in North Carolina and
Tennessee. The would-be duelists probably expected his approbation. His letter,
therefore, couched in such threatening language, effectually and promptly
crushed the tendency to deadly conflicts--as it has turned out, forever.
As showing the evil sentiments on this subject once prevailing, I state that
two students of the College of South Carolina who had been friends, promising
young men, fought a duel with pistols for slight cause, one being killed and
the other so wounded that his life was blighted; and the second of one of them
was a prominent lawyer, afterwards United States Senator Butler.

At this University there was no one killed or wounded. The two
students who had been expelled, on the motion by the bye of General Davie,
applied to have the sentence remitted, but a committee of which ex-Governor
Martin was chairman reported against it and the application was refused. The
Board adopted a most stringent ordinance, commanding the Faculty to expel and
then hand over to the civil authorities all engaged in such conflicts as
principals or as aiders and abetters.

By the kindness of General Rufus Barringer, we have a letter dated
February 28, 1804, by a sprightly student, Henry Chambers, to Adlai Osborne, of
Salisbury, a recent graduate, which describes a 22d February celebration at the
University. There

was prevailing what the physicians
called "nervous fever." One student, Philips of Edgecombe, uncle of
ex-Judge Fred Philips, had died from it, and his countryman, Lemuel Sessoms,
was not expected to live. He goes on, "My dear fellow, amidst all our
afflictions of sickness, etc., we did not forget the 22d of February; nay we
cherished a lively recollection of the character to whom that day gave birth
and celebrated it in a pleasing and splendid manner. Yes; on that day we not
only gave to the world the strongest, most conclusive indications of our love
for the exalted, the immortal Washington, but showed incontestibly that we were
hopeful votaries of Bacchus. About thirty of the most respectable students
subscribed for a supper to be furnished by Mr. Nunn. The recent death of Mr.
Philips prevented our having a dance as was intended, after the Senior class
had finished speaking. Will you believe it--that out of that number there
were but four or five sober. I, though strange to tell, was one of this number;
but it was almost impossible for me to have been otherwise than sober as I was
chosen President, and it was indispensable that I should keep cool. All the
Faculty attended by special invitation. They gave us some good toasts, drank
pretty freely, retired (except ----, whom we consider one of
ourselves), early and left us to our own enjoyment. ---- performed
noble feats that day. He got intoxicated twice. He, some others and myself,
commenced drinking wine at 11 o'clock in the forenoon and continued drinking
until one. By this time all found it necessary to go to bed to get sober enough
to attend the supper. This we did, and ---- got 'all seas
over' again. College exhibited a pretty scene next morning. I am unable
to describe it."

It is impossible to imagine such a debauch in our day. Chambers was in
the Senior class, a man of talent, afterwards a leader in the anti-monitor
dispute with the Trustees. He was a physician of strength.

A DISASTROUS EXPERIMENT IN COLLEGE GOVERNMENT.--THE GREAT
REBELLION.

The indignation aroused by such offences, especially the dueling
episode, prompted the Trustees in 1805 to adopt laws of such inquisitorial
severity as outraged the sense of justice among

the
students. In the first place the President and Faculty were required to take an
oath before a Justice of the Peace or Judge to execute the laws of the
institution. Having thus quickened the sense of responsibility of the governors
the next move was on the students. There was already, (as I have heretofore
shown), a by-law of the institution that the President should appoint a monitor
for each class "to mark absentees from Prayers and Public Worship on
Sunday, to note all profane swearing or gross or vulgar language, and report at
Prayers on each Sunday morning."

They were notified that if they failed they would "betray the
trust confided to them." Naturally this duty was neglected, as the
monitors were not willing to incur the odium of being "common
informers." It was determined by the Trustees to strengthen this
ordinance. Mr. A. D. Murphey, the young lawyer who had recently been Professor
of Ancient Languages, moved for a committee to report amendments to the
by-laws. Mr. Duncan Cameron, who then at the age of 28 was a lawyer of large
practice, afterwards also a Judge and President of the great State Bank of
North Carolina, with Murphey as chairman, constituted the committee. Their
report was unanimously adopted, but there was only a bare quorum of the
Board.

The ordinance required two monitors to be appointed by lot from the
twelve senior students of each class to serve one month. They were to take an
oath before some officer authorized to administer an oath as follows:

"I, A. B., Monitor of the .......... class, on the establishment
of the University of North Carolina, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully
execute the duties of a monitor of the .......... class, during my continuance
in office, without fear, favor or affection, to the best of my understanding,
so help me, God."

1. The duties were to preserve order among the students in the
College, the dining-room and elsewhere, with power to suppress every species of
irregularity. Opposition by a student to a monitor engaged in preserving the
good order of the institution, was a misdemeanor, to be punished by private or
public admonition, by suspension, or otherwise, as the offence might
deserve.

2. The classes were to sit together in the dining-room, the monitors
presiding. They were invested with full power, and it was their duty to
preserve proper decency and decorum among the students at their respective
tables, to permit no loud talking, laughing or other improper behavior,

to suffer no waste of the provisions, nor suffer the
same to be abused at the table, nor allow any to be taken away, without the
Steward's consent. In case of misbehavior they were directed to order the
offender away from the table. All students were bound to take their meals at
Commons unless excused on the plea of ill health.

3. They were strictly to watch over the conduct of the students at all
times during their continuance in office, and make report of every irregularity
and impropriety of behavior to the Faculty at the end of each week. They were
also to report all injuries to public buildings and property with the names of
the offenders.

4. At the ringing of the bell for meals the students were ordered to
repair to the dining-room, arrange themselves according to the order of their
classes on each side of the door, with their Monitors at the head, and thus
follow the Tutor into the room.

5. Each class must sit by itself in the Public Hall with the Monitors
at their head. The Tutors and Monitors were enjoined to have these formalities
strictly complied with, "and in no instance permit the same to be
departed from."

6. The Monitors of the Junior and Sophomore classes were to be the
marshals at Commencement and make all necessary arrangements therefor.

Those present when this astounding law was passed were the President
of the Board, Col. Wm. Polk, Duncan Cameron, A. D. Murphey, Col. Edward Jones,
Robert Montgomery, Adlai Osborne and Wm. H. Hill.

They were among the best men of the State. Cameron and Murphey were
among the leaders in professional life and in legislative halls. Public school
teachers owe Murphey a peculiar debt of gratitude. Jones was the able
Solicitor-General. Montgomery and Hill were members of Congress. Osborne was a
lawyer of large practice, as indeed were all the others except Col. Polk, who
was president of a bank and a wealthy planter. Not one, except Murphey, had
been a teacher.

Murphey must be held principally responsible for this ill-judged
measure. Public opinion deemed it the suggestion of President Caldwell, but he
denied it and appealed to the Board of Trustees to confirm his statement. The
ordinance was written by a lawyer evidently. I can only account for the
monstrous blunder on the part of men of such reputation for sagacity by the
following explanation. President Caldwell said that in the great rebellion of
1799, when Gillaspie, the Principal, was beaten, he and Murphey were
threatened. It may be that resentment

for such outrages
unsettled his judgment, and Cameron, a busy lawyer acquiesced because his
friend, having lived among the students, was supposed to have peculiar
knowledge of the subject. So clear to Murphey seemed the propriety of governing
the institution by the machinery of the criminal law, just as are governed in
large measure the German universities, that he proposed to the Trustees to ask
the General Assembly to make the head of the University a Justice of the Peace.
This motion met with slender support. It is justice to him to state that he
soon changed his notions about the discipline of students.

As the spirit of the proposed ordinance was the treatment of the
students like soldiers in service, it was naturally approved by Col. Polk, who
had been President of the Board for two years. He was a man of autocratic
temper, and had served under the iron discipline of Baron Von Steuben of the
school of the great Frederick.

If our students had been a colony of wax-dolls they might have
submitted to this law without a murmur. If cruel tyranny had crushed out all
their instinctive sense of right and wrong and made them a colony of liars and
sneaks, they would have cringed, promised obedience and straightway
systematically fawned upon and deceived the professors; but, being American
boys with independence of thought and abundance of pluck, they received the
ordinance with angry disgust and determination not to submit. Four Seniors out
of seven, eleven Juniors out of sixteen, twenty-four Sophomores and six
Freshmen, in all forty-five, being a majority of all the students in
attendance, and a very large majority of the ablest and most mature, presented
a remonstrance to the Faculty and Trustees, at the same time binding themselves
to leave the institution if one of their number should be punished. And to use
their own language, "If any signer should withdraw from the league he
should be considered unworthy the attention of a gentleman," an ostracism
more terrible to the average student than death or expulsion.

President Caldwell had not then learned the management of North
Carolina students. He made the singular mistake of

supposing that the requirement of an oath was the only cause of the
indignation. At his request a "pledge of honor" was substituted for
the oath, but the promise in other respects being more stringent. The change
was unanimously rejected by the recalcitrants. After this, in December, 1805,
the ordinance was unanimously repealed.

As this was a disastrous experiment in college government, I give in
detail the substance of the ordinance substituted for that requiring the oath,
adopted about six weeks later at a called meeting of the Board.

The Trustees sought to sustain their authority by "suspending
for unlimited time" the obnoxious requirement.

By the amendment the Monitors were required to repeat and subscribe,
in presence of the Faculty and students, the following promise, to be engrossed
in large characters in a book, to be kept for that purpose: "I, A. B.,
Monitor of the....class, do promise and pledge myself......that I will endeavor
by a faithful and impartial discharge of the duties of my appointment to prove
my respect and veneration for a moral and religious conduct, my patriotism and
love of honor, my attachment to the interests of literature and science, and my
filial regard for the reputation and happiness of this University." These
fine words by no means buttered the parsnips of the students, for there
followed additional duties and requirements even more exacting and odious than
were in the previous ordinance.

The first gave power to the Monitors only over their own classes. The
second charged them with the duty of watching the conduct and language of all
students, as well as of their own classes. They must forbid immoral and
irreligious conduct and breaches of the laws; and not only those but every
species of irregularity and indecency, words so general as necessarily to lead
to frequent disputes. Like the Tribunes of Rome their persons were made in a
manner sacrosancti, it
being a misdemeanor to disobey or insult one. The same strict table laws were
re-enacted.

The Monitors must make weekly written reports, minutely stating all
breaches of the laws, all immoralities, irregularities or instances of indecent
behavior by any student, naming the offender, especially reporting injuries to
University property.

Any student appointed Monitor, wilfully failing or neglecting to
discharge his duties, was to be punished by admonition, or suspension not
exceeding three months, and for second offences suspended indefinitely, and
reported to the Trustees for expulsion.

It was further ordered that the Tutors of the Preparatory School
should visit the rooms of the students three nights in the week, and anyone not
in his room was liable to be reprimanded by the aforesaid Tutor and punished by
the President of the University. And any Preparatory student under sixteen
years of age wilfully injuring the college buildings was to be publicly whipped
with not less than five or more than ten stripes. If over sixteen years of age
the punishment was public admonition and suspension for the first offence, and
expulsion for the second offence, "by the President without reporting to
the Trustees."

The foregoing summary shows that the objections of Chambers hereafter
mentioned were not without weight, and were not founded on a distorted view of
the letter and spirit of the substituted ordinance.

Contemporaneous letters show vividly the consternation caused by the
great secession, as great in proportion to the numbers of the community as was
the march of the Plebians of Rome to the summit of Mons Sacer. The Steward,
Major Pleasant Henderson, wrote to a Trustee, Walter Alves, "The crisis
is awful. Communicate this fateful intelligence to Mr. Bennehan. I know how
much it will affect him." Mr. Bennehan, whose christian name was Richard,
was the grandfather of Mr. Paul C. Cameron, long one of our ablest and most
efficient Trustees. He had resigned his Trusteeship the year before on account
of bodily infirmity.

The President of the Board, Col. Polk, wrote to President Caldwell:
"The situation into which the imprudence and ill-directed conduct of the
seceding students has thrown the institution is truly distressing." He
announced that the Trustees had agreed that those who had not left the Hill and
are willing to submit, may do so on terms, but those who have deserted

without leave must apply to the Trustees. If the classes
have been so depleted as to make it impracticable to carry out the system, it
may be dispensed with; but, he added with the old Von Steuben instinct of
discipline, "when the classes grow the ordinance must be
enforced."

In another letter he says: "I. W. applies for re-admission. The
Trustees decline to act in individual cases, but will publish general terms.
They must promise to conform to the laws."

President Caldwell was of course deeply stirred. While not originally
responsible for the ordinance he endeavored with zeal to carry it into effect,
and he denounced the conduct of the rebellious students to the Trustees with
bitterness. In a letter to Richard Henderson, urging him to accept the
Professorship of Languages, he predicted that one-half or two-thirds of
"the conspirators" will ask leave to return. He adds pathetically,
"If so many of the youth of our country can so easily sacrifice the
opportunity of science and aim with so little reluctance a fatal blow at the
very existence of the University, it is for those who know by greater
experience the value of such an institution to baffle the waves of adversity
and steer the bark safely from the storm which assails it." He then
declares though tempted by the offer of higher salary and a more congenial
chair, he had "foregone all temptations with the view of still sustaining
our tottering institution, assailed as it is by outward foes and rent as it has
been lately by an explosion of inward insubordination, rashness and
profligacy."

I find an allegorical paper among Dr. Caldwell's manuscripts entirely
in his handwriting, where and how published, or whether published at all, I
have been unable to ascertain, giving a picture of the morals and manners of
the students, which we must hope, is far too highly colored. It is entitled
"An Attempt at a Foul and Unnatural Murder." Some parts of it are
worth quoting--"A respectable matron who has a large family of
children became an object of odium and conspiracy among them on account of the
strict restraint she imposed upon their vices and disorders. She had with
infinite regret observed in them for a long time a strong tendency to the
practise of getting drunk and then engaging in the acts of theft, lewdness and
riot,

which naturally incurred the necessity of much
lying, equivocation and duplicity." Those not participating, refusing to
inform, "were involved in equal disgrace with the guilty." Also
many "engaged in the practise of gaming, profane swearing, and insulting
the people they met with," and when resistance was encountered, "by
threats of secret mischief or imposing blustering attempt to ward off
punishment." Also they frequently played tricks, entered associations for
making noise, tumult, vociferation and confusion, to the interruption of the
family and the disgrace of their mother's house.

She fell upon the expedient of appointing some of the number, if they
could not prevent, "to make report to her of those who misbehaved. As she
knew the more perfect the restraint could be made, the better it would be for
her offspring, she required the inspectors to be under oath to be faithful to
their duty. The reason of this particular was that their depravity had ripened
so far as it lay it down as a maxim, that mere promises were of no
force."--"Only those promises which bound them to their duty
were pronounced to be of no force, but such as they made to one another,
binding them to faithfulness in their combination against the laws and rules of
the family, as to conceal the author of every immorality, and disorder, were
deemed as sacred and kept as inviolate as promises to do good among the
generality of mankind."

"After six weeks trial, they remonstrated against the oath. That
was withdrawn and a promise of honor substituted. Then many grew outrageous and
clearly evinced that it was not the oath that had excited their aversion, but
the necessity of giving up their beloved habits of licentiousness."
"They suddenly and impetuously flew at her in a body, grasped her by the
throat and made a promiscuous outcry that they would rather die than submit to
such tyranny, that the laws of morality were not made for young people. That
God Almighty himself could not abide by such laws and that as for religion they
cared not half so much for the privilege of an orison to the Supreme Being, as
they did for the liberty of taking his name in vain, abusing him habitually to
his face, and damning all his progeny into eternal perdition. It was enough to
bring tears into the eyes of any

person of common
feeling to see how unrelenting the exasperation was which the love of their
vices had infused in them."--"So blinded were they to the real
nature of their habits, that they acted as if they were doing no more than
vidicating by a desperate struggle their proper
rights, while nothing could be plainer, than that an indissoluble attachment to
disorder and libertinism had brought their feelings to so irritated a
state."--"Exerting every nerve they long kept their mother
gasping and half-expiring, till they grew weary of their efforts, and she
extricated herself from their clutches. Thus setting herself at liberty they
fled from the home, leaving a dread upon the mind of the astonished and
suffering parent lest they should ever become troublesome by solicitation to be
re-admitted.--If such application be made we hope that she will always
remember, that if she is not out of existence, it is neither for the want of a
wish nor of the utmost effort they could make to destroy her."

The records show that those applying for re-admission were few,
notwithstanding the repeal of the ordinance.

I have discovered among the papers of General John Steele, a letter
written to him by Henry Chambers, who was, as I have said, a chief leader of
the insurgents, showing the students' side of the controversy. He begins by
saying, "Every friend to science must lament the injudicious conduct of
the Trustees in passing so odious a law. It was very objectionable in theory
but much more so in practice. It banished all harmony. The consequence of every
return of the Monitor was a contention between the students and the teacher and
the students and the Monitors. Frequently have I heard the return of the
Monitor contradicted in the public Hall, though he was acting under oath. What
young man of feeling would be willing to place himself in such a situation as
this? Who would suffer himself publicly to be called a perjured villain? And
the Monitor does this when he permits the correctness of his returns to be
questioned. When our Remonstrance was presented to the Trustees, they consented
to take off the oath but substituted a promise no less binding, and introduced
some provisions into the law which made it much more objectionable than it was
originally. Upon examination it will be found that

the
Monitors have cognizance now, not only of the conduct of their particular
classes but of the whole school. Thus a member of the lower class can admonish
and return a member of the Senior or Junior classes. And is it not degrading to
put a young man of the first stand in College under the absolute control of a
little Boy; a Boy that may be incapable of discriminating between proper and
improper conduct? It certainly is."--"Perhaps an apology is
due you for troubling you with this letter. I beg that you will ascribe it to
the uncommon solicitude I feel to satisfy my friends as to the part I have
acted. If they condemn me it is my misfortune to be condemned for doing what I
conceive to be right and proper."

Chambers was one of the best students in his class and very near to
receiving his diploma. It must have been a profound conviction that made him
become the leader in the movement of resistance and ultimately of
secession.

A letter dated September 23, 1805, published by Dr. S. B. Weeks in the
University Magazine of April and May, 1894, from John
L. Conner to his brother, gives also the views of the students as to the
Monitor Ordinances. He called them oppressive and tyrannical. "A
remonstrance, signed by forty-five students, was handed to the Faculty and
Trustees, a fortnight before the expiration of the monitorial office. The
Trustees did not repeal the laws but modified them, and in that modification
they also magnified them, being still more severe (the oath excepted) than
before." For the oath was substituted a solemn promise. Those who signed
the remonstrance were desired to meet in order to decide: 1st, Is the promise
binding? This was affirmed by a large majority. 2d, Is the law modified? The
vote on this was 22 in the negative against 19. "Of course, according to
the remonstrance and 'private obligation,' we were obliged to leave
College." Mr. Conner goes on to express his admiration of the speakers
among the students. "The legislature of North Carolina cannot produce men
of such accurate judgment, reasoning and fluent language as was displayed in
the debates of our honorable body. * * * Those who signed (with some
exceptions) are the most respectable, both in their class and
character."

Conner gives his reason for joining the insurrection. "When I
was first asked to sign, I refused, alleging that I could agree to be governed
by the laws but not to be one that should enforce them, that the law would not
affect me as I boarded out of College: that I should not be made a monitor for
the same reason, and that I was seldom among the monitors." He found
however that he was not only liable to be monitor but to be forced to live in
the College building. He had recently a severe attack of rheumatism and if he
should be sick in College he would have very little attendance and stand in
need of every necessity. "The fare also in College is miserable, for it
is common to see skippers in beef, which is the only flesh diet they have. In
this case they must fast, for by a later ordinance they are debarred from
getting a dinner elsewhere."

"Only four students, who signed the remonstrance, now remain in
the village. The rest have returned home to their parents and friends, who
highly approve of their conduct. They have no idea of their sons being perjured
by an extorted oath. The trustees have exhibited the affair in as bad a point
of view as possible, nothing more than what was to be expected. However, they
have since had the generosity to acknowledge an error in judgment."

Conner concluded to remain in Chapel Hill and pursue his studies
privately. He adds naively, "I assure you that I should not have signed,
had I not thought myself justifiable in so doing. But I had not the least idea
in its terminating in such disagreeable consequences." He subsequently
accepted the offer of the Trustees that the seceders might return on
subscribing a promise to obey the laws of the institution.

John Lancaster Conner was evidently a young man of parts. He was a
lineal descendant of the Quaker Lord Proprietor, and Governor of Carolina, John
Archdale, and grandson of Emmanuel Love, Secretary of the Province. He left the
University without graduating, probably on account of his rheumatism, and died
early.

It must be admitted that the seceders adopted the wrong remedy for the
evil of which they complained. They injured themselves and injured the
University. They inflicted severe

pain on those who
loved them best, their parents and relatives. They would undoubtedly have
procured the repeal of the ordinance at an early date by continued strong, yet
courteous, petitions. It was passed by a thin Board, a bare quorum. The
Trustees were judicious and well-meaning, and it was repealed after only a few
months operation. The secession and violent language were a hindrance to early
repeal, because the Trustees could not yield to denunciation and threats.

That I am correct in this criticism of the action of the students is
sustained by a letter from General Davie to Treasurer Haywood, of the date of
September 22, 1805. His opinion had commanding weight with the Trustees, and
that was decidedly against the ordinance. He wrote: "The late unfortunate
occurrence at the University is much to be lamented on many accounts, but most
of all for the ill-advised measure which gave birth to the conduct and feeling
of the students. An ordinance of the same kind was rejected several years ago
on a full consideration by the Board on the ground that the principle was
improper. These Monitors under the ordinance are not a species of Magistrates
but real spies, and human nature revolts from the
principle of espionage in every shape. The corruption and depravity of London,
Paris, and other large cities, render its adoption necessary to the police, but
the most degraded wretch in the sinks of depravity could not be induced to
accept it as a public office, and always stipulates for the most profound
secrecy with regard to his employment. I do not believe that the duty of
Monitor or Censor has ever been carried further in any literary Institution
than to note absences from prescribed duties such as attendance on recitation,
prayers, Church, etc." He counselled absolute repeal of the
ordinance.

He was, however, far from approving the violent conduct of the
students. He advised that the ring leaders should not be re-admitted. He added:
"I have reflected much and seriously since this event on the cause of
this spirit of insubordination, and the means of preventing it. It has always
existed in a considerable degree; the ordinance may be considered as only an
accidental cause. I think the real causes may be found in the deficits of
domestic education in the Southern States, the

weakness
of parental authority, the spirit of the Times, the arrangements as to
vacation, and some errors by the Board which I will notice
hereafter."

"Every man of discernment who has lived forty or fifty years
must have observed and lamented the general decay of parental authority and the
consequent presumption and loose manners of our young men. Boys of 16 or 17
years, without judgment, without experience as to almost any knowledge of any
kind, arrogantly affect to judge for themselves, the trustees and even their
parents in matters of morality, of government, of education, in fact of
everything. The effect of the other general cause is visible throughout the
whole of their remonstrance. Nothing can be more ridiculous than
Boys at school talking of 'sacred regard for
their rights,' 'the high and imposing duty of resistance,'
and of 'denouncing laws,' etc., etc., the genuine slang of the
times, culled from the columns of newspapers; yet these very sounds are
attended with the most mischievous consequences. Over these causes however the
Board has no power or influence, but they must be considered to be counteracted
as far as practicable."

General Davie then states that he has observed that these disturbances
take place in the Fall of the year. This he attributes to the great length of
time the students have been confined at College. "They become tired and
disgusted with study, their minds generally acquire a sour, gloomy and restive
temperament, producing a general predisposition to any measure that may break
up the session, or interrupt business and distress the Faculty."--To
remedy this he recommended having the two vacations on the same footing, i. e.
of the same length.

"The difficulty we have continually experienced in the
management of youth at this institution, has obliged me to reflect on the means
we have used, and the nature of the Government of such institutions. I am now
perfectly convinced that the best governed Colleges are those which have the
most respectable Faculties, and the fewest written
laws, and that we have committed a serious error in making an ordinance for
everything, in other words legislating too much. It is now my opinion that
after describing the kind of punishment to be used in the Establishment, and
reserving in all cases the punishment of

Expulsion to be confirmed by the Board, the rest should
be left to the discretion of the Faculty."

"It may require some reflection to see the justness of this
remark, owing to certain habits among us of acting and thinking, and I will
only add that the principles of parental government are the true models for
that of literary institutions for the youth of all kinds from the University
down to the common schools. The parental government has no written laws, and I
would observe that no mortal man could govern his family if he adopted that
mode. If he did his whole household would become, like these students, lawyers
and legislators, discussing his ordinances, chattering about 'their
rights,' 'despotism,' 'duty of resistance,' etc.,
etc. They would form themselves into revolutionary committees and be always
deliberating, remonstrating and revolting."

He doubted the propriety of publishing in the newspapers all the
distinctions made. The motive is good, but "it has the effect of filling
the young men with presumption, and a vain imaginary consequence. Perhaps it is
better to notice in the papers the Commencement honors only."

" 'It is dangerous to depart from the paths of
Experience,' is a truth I am more and more convinced of every day I
live."

General Davie left Halifax for his plantation in South Carolina about
the first of November, and this letter contains the last counsels he gave to
the institution which he so long cherished. With the exception of his
recommendation of two vacations of equal length, the management of the
institution has been for many years on the line he advocated. During President
Caldwell's administration the Trustees ceased to interfere in the discipline,
and in 1876 the By-Laws were quietly laid aside and the requirement that
students behave as gentlemen was adopted as the general rule of conduct.

The repeal of the obnoxious ordinance did not bring back the seceders.
In 1805 there were only three graduates and in 1806 only four. In 1807 they
rose to six and in 1808 to thirteen.

The following list shows the names of the seceders:

Of the Senior Class: Henry Y. Webb, of Hillsboro; Henry Chambers, of
Rowan; John Owen, of Bladen; Ransom Hinton, of Wake--4.

Some of these attained prominence in after life: John Owen, was
Governor; Henry Y. Webb, a Judge; Wm. B. Meares, a State Senator; John Jones,
Speaker of the House. Some others attained the dignity of representing their
counties in the General Assembly. A few returned after a year's absence and
graduated. The majority settled down into the steady useful life of North
Carolina citizens.

The Trustees were evidently sore at their defeat. Probably some of the
seceding students obtained admission into other institutions. In 1807 a letter
was sent to the Presidents of all the Colleges in the Union, transmitting
copies of "An Ordinance to Prevent the Admission into the University of
North Carolina of Improper Persons as Students." It was signed by
Governor Benjamin Williams, as President of the Board. Accompanying

it was a letter by him, stating that it was adopted
because of recent acts of hostility to authority and the laws, committed in
several American Colleges, and asking for a regular report of expulsions and
desertions.

The scope of the ordinance was--

1. Refusal to admit into the University of North Carolina any student
expelled from any University or College, or who has deserted therefrom to avoid
trial for offences.

2. Requiring of all applicants for admission a declaration that they
have not been expelled and have not so deserted another institution.

3. That the names, ages and residences of all such expelled students
and deserters shall be transmitted to all other institutions, and also recorded
in the journals of the Faculty and of the Board. Similar lists transmitted from
other institutions shall be similarly recorded.

This document, apparently vindictive in its intent, by the use of the
word "deserters," as applicable to students leaving the institution
pending charges, coupled with the inquisitorial character of the ordinance
appointing Monitors, intimates that the authorities regarded them as subject to
control similar to that used in the army over soldiers. The experiment is
interesting as a step in the transition from the old-time severity of Colleges,
as well as family government, to the more free, and, as results here proved,
more satisfactory modern methods.

A difficulty which occurred in 1808 shows strongly the sensitiveness
of the Faculty in regard to their authority and that they had not lost their
pluck in consequence of the "great Rebellion." Because of
dissatisfaction in regard to fare in Steward's Hall thirty-eight students,
among them eight Seniors and nine Juniors, in the list being such men as John
Branch, afterwards Governor and Secretary of the Navy, James F. Taylor,
Solicitor for the State, Mark Alexander, a member of Congress, signed a
petition to the Faculty, stating their grievances in strong language. Among
other things they said: "Having borne with patience for a considerable
time a failure of the Steward to comply with the bill of fare, and having
observed the inefficiency of individual complaints to produce an amendment,

and seeing that our rights are infringed upon, we have
thought proper to petition the Faculty, in whom is vested the power to enforce
a compliance. Our grievances are daily accumulated, and they are such whose
importance demands immediate redress. We have long observed an insufficiency of
butter.--The beef has been such as to shock every sentiment of
decency--frequently unsound and covered with vermin.--The frequency
of this shows that it proceeds from carelessness in the Steward, and as such we
require an alteration."

The paper was drawn evidently by Maxwell Chambers, of Salisbury,
afterwards a physician of that place, a relative of Dr. Henry Chambers, leader
of the great Secession. It was considered by the Faculty to be offensive, the
use of the word "require" and the like savoring of rebellion. At
their suggestion another was substituted, stating that, "on reflection we
have discovered the inconsistency of our former petition, and therefore,
conformable to your opinion and also to our own view, we now offer one, in
which is contained a plain statement of every article, on which our complaints
are founded." After enumerating the charges in regard to the deficiencies
of the table, they "entreat the interposition of your authority for a
redress of our grievances."

I wish I could add, as old children stories concluded, "and so
they lived happily together," but the journal shows that two students,
one Senior John R. Stokes, and one Junior, Elias Foord, refused to sign the
amended paper and were suspended from the institution. Afterwards Stokes
petitioned the Trustees for restoration, alleging that he meant no disrespect
to the Faculty by his conduct and promising obedience to the laws. This was
approved by the Faculty and the Trustees, after a long preamble avowing their
determination to sustain the authority of the Faculty. They agreed to the
request, "as an offering of kindness and favor." Stokes returned
and took his diploma, but Foord remained at home.

As the Faculty, when satisfied of the guilt of one accused, often
declined to accept his denial, it sometimes probably happened that injustice
was done. In 1811 I find a paper signed by six students, some of whom
undoubtedly were during their adult

lives good citizens,
"attest upon their truth that they heard a certain person avow in such
manner as to convince them of his unaffected sincerity that he performed the
self-same act for the supposed commission of which J. Pinkston had been
suspended." Pinkston was reinstated.

The indignation of the friends of this student and another was so
great that when President Caldwell rose in the Chapel to announce their
suspension, twenty-three of their friends ostentatiously marched out in
disgust. Among them were such men as Charles L. Hinton, a State Treasurer; John
G. B. Roulhac, prominent merchant; and Arthur Hopkins, a Chief Justice. They
miscalculated the firmness of the President and his Faculty, who promptly
suspended them all. A strong and well-written letter of apology and regrets,
almost too fulsome, was promptly sent in by the humbled insurgents. Hear them.
"You, Revd. and respected Sir, are conversant with the history of man
from infancy to maturity. You have taught the young idea how to shoot. You have
poured the fresh instruction over the mind. You have fixed the worthy purpose
in the glowing breast."

"We have acted improperly.--It proceeded from the temporary
absence of reason and reflection.--We acknowledge our error with
contrition.--We ardently solicit and respectfully hope for forgiveness for
this our late offence and particularly for the conduct of those of tender age
who may have been led into error by our example."

"With that respect, Reverend and Revered Sir, that your
character and conduct universally command, and of which you are so highly
deserving, we presume to add that of our esteem and individual affection, let
the fate of this letter be what it may."

To this eloquent letter, which likewise contained disclaimer of
intentional disrespect and promise of future good conduct, the cold answer was
returned by the President, that after their return to their homes the petition
might be taken up and considered. Most of them were reinstated and took their
degrees.

In one case an extraordinary amount of contrition was demanded. The
sentence was that the offender should be indefinitely

suspended unless he should acknowledge to the Faculty in the presence of all
the students that he had done wrong, secondly that he should crave the
indulgence and good will of the Faculty and particularly of the President,
thirdly that he should assure the Faculty that he would obey the laws in the
future.

Sometimes the good President wrote out the letters of contrition to be
signed by the offenders. One of them is made to say, when summoned to answer
the Professors for neglect of duty, "It is with shame and confusion I
confess the low and vulgar expressions in which I suffered my obstinate and
indecent passions to vent themselves in return for their solicitude for my
welfare, * * * and I will never again be guilty of such language, or of any
voluntary infraction of the laws of this institution which is so sacredly
devoted to the production and advancement of good morals and science in the
hearts and understandings of the young." The student who signed the
above-mentioned paper--what is often called in the country a
"lie-bill," was so agitated that he forgot to dot his i's in
William; a grammatical neglect of atrocious magnitude in those days.

Notwithstanding these occasional outbreaks it is refreshing to find
periods of tranquillity. A sentimental observer writing in February, 1803,
praises students and Faculty in glowing language. He says "voluntary
acquiescence stamps a reverence on the minds of all. Contentment extends its
influence through every department and beams with placid serenity on every
brow."

SAYINGS AND INCIDENTS OF A COMICAL NATURE.

Comical incidents and sayings form so large part of University life
that I record some as specimens of what in the old days were considered
amusing. I begin with two pictures of incorrigible boys.

For a short while during this period little descriptive notes were
kept in a book, of which the following are specimens of the worst. For the most
part they are favorable.

"R. B. is very indolent, seldom or ever recites his lessons
well; and absents himself from the class at recitations, and for his absences
seldom produces but frivolous excuses. He has made very little improvement and
the repeated admonitions of

his teachers are
insufficient to rouse him to industry and to induce him to apply himself to
study."

"J. V., who reads nothing but Virgil, neither construes or
parses very correctly. He is possessed of only moderate genius and is much
inclined to be indolent. He takes little pains to improve and seldom remembers
on one day what he has been told on the preceding. He is nearly grown and
though he has been much at school, he has made but little progress and
certainly will never be proficient in the languages."

Of the anecdotes some are true, some mythical.

A letter written February 8, 1809, from Henry H. Watters to his
mother, who lived near Wilmington, shows that, while the spirit of
insubordination had not entirely died out, the buoyancy of youth had caused the
students to turn their attention to other matters than resisting the Faculty,
even using intensive culture to promote the growth of sprouting beard.

"The young men have for some time been very irregular in their
conduct, and yesterday one received a public admonition and six or seven a
private one. None have merited suspension or expulsion. A little mischief now
and then is expected from young men and only serves to remind teachers of their
duty. I have not spent but one quarter uselessly and that was in buying cider.
I have purchased other things, but they are necessaries. I have received the
articles which I purchased last fall at a vendue; A. Reaves, a noted gambler,
was my security, so you see I have not lost my credit. I had a pair of shorts
made of the cotton cassimere and am resolved to shine here, if not with you. My
beard and whiskers are sprouting finely. I shave them once a week and grease
them every night with tallow. I am told by some of my fellow students that
greasing is a fine thing to make them grow, and I have no doubt that warm
weather will accelerate the growth very much. You have again attacked me about
my cough. I can tell you for the hundredth time that I have none. Next time you
write to me about it you shall hear that I incessantly spit hogsheads of blood
every day, eat nothing, and am nothing but skin and bone."

"As politics are so often the topics of conversation I have
written to Mr. Boylan to send me his paper and apply to Papa

for the money. Mr. Caldwell is more fond of conversing
on that than on any other subject, and without some information on the subject
I will be unable to converse with him."

When Paul C. Cameron matriculated in 1824 he had a letter of
introduction from his father to a senior, James M. Wright, son of Judge Wright
of Memphis, who lived in the South Building. Young Paul was a typical Highland
Scotchman in appearance. His hair was red, his face was red, and he wore a suit
of clothes of the color called turkey-red, made at home by his loving mother.
As he walked up alone from the hotel he passed a group of students sitting on
the steps of the north entrance of the Old East Building. One of them,
attracted by the passing flash of rubicund light, called out, "Red
Bird!" The Freshman's blood was as red as his face, hair and garments. He
stopped and offered battle. "I can't whip you all at once," he
savagely said, "but if you will come out one at a time, I will whip every
one of you." No one felt inclined to accept the challenge. Young Wright
took him in as his roommate and he never was hazed.

The following incident illustrates Dr. Caldwell in his gentler mood.
He descried a student fastening a goose to the ridge of the roof of the East
Building. "Ah, Joseph, Joseph," said he, "I suppose thou art
fixing up that poor bird there as an emblem of thyself." This was the
eminent editor of the National Intelligencer, Joseph
Gales. Dr. Hooper adds, "Perhaps that severe cut from his teacher may
have goaded the youthful truant to throw away the goose forever afterwards,
reserving only a quill to write himself into renown."

Among the mythical, I class that which tells of a plot to steal Dr.
Caldwell's carriage and haul it to the foot of the hill on the Pittsboro road,
a mile off, and leave it there. The Doctor, ever watchful, not averse to what
was not considered dishonorable in that day, eavesdropping, heard of the
scheme. When night came he hid in the vehicle and was transported by the jovial
draught boys to what is now Purefoy's Mill, once Merritt's. As they were about
to return to their rooms, he poked his head out of the window and blandly said,
"Now, young gentlemen! will you please haul me back to my
residence?" As the ascent

was 250 feet towards the
skies the chapfallen students were nearly exhausted, so much so that no further
punishment was inflicted. I class this as mythical, although firmly credited in
the old University circles, because the same story is told of an English
pedagogue.

The next incident is probably true. The Doctor's nickname was Bolus,
abbreviated from Diabolus. He got wind of a project to steal his turkeys, which
he was fattening for some festival dinner. Hiding near the coop, he heard one
fowl searcher stealthily creep therein and seizing the gobbler remark to his
confederates, "Here, boys, is old Bolus!" Then grabbing the hen,
"And here is Mrs. Bolus." The Doctor then rushed forward so rapidly
that in order to escape, the turkeys were dropped. He had them killed next day
and invited the marauders and others to the dining at which they were served.
After carving he looked significantly at the ringleader and asked,
"Mr.--, will you have a slice of old Bolus, or do you prefer a slice
of Mrs. Bolus?" He then gave the same option to the other delinquents
successively. It is said that there was never a more severe punishment.

At one time it was the rule to require written excuses for
delinquencies. Dr. Caldwell said, "Mr.--, you have offered seven
excuses to four absences." "All right, Doctor! let the surplus
three go on the absences of next week."

After graduation, Matthew Troy was a Tutor in the Preparatory
Department--the hero of a story recorded by Dr. Hooper in his "Fifty
Years Since." "I told you," he says, "that I remembered
Mr. Troy with gratitude; but I believe nothing he ever taught me imprinted
itself so deeply on my memory, as the burst of eloquence which the boys told me
he had made, when he was a student, upon the charms of Miss Hay, afterwards the
first Mrs. Gaston. Troy was given to the grandiloquent style, and on that
occasion Miss Hay, who was the belle of the day, with a small party came to
visit the Dialectic library. It was then kept in one of the common rooms
inhabited by four students; and you may judge of the tumult that was excited by
such visitation and how much sweeping and fixing up was required, and how many
frightened boys ran to the neighboring

rooms, and shut
the doors, all but a small crack to peep through. On this memorable occasion,
Troy had fixed himself in a corner of the room, whence he could contemplate the
beautiful apparition in silent ecstacy. After she was gone the librarian called
him out of his trance, and said: "Well, Troy, what do you think of
her?" "Oh! sir, she's enough to melt the frigidity of a stoic, and
excite rapture in the breast of a hermit"; to which he might have added:
'And like another Helen, fire another Troy.' A man that could talk
in that way, appeared to me, in those days, to have reached the top of
Parnassus."

The following story was told me by Dr. Johnston B. Jones, of Chapel
Hill and Charlotte.

There came a long, lank student from a region where literary culture
was not abundant. The members of the Faculty were generally preachers and
attendance on Prayers in the chapel twice a day was rigorously enforced. At the
end of the first week the neophyte was reported habitually absent. He was sent
for in hot haste "to appear before the Awful Tribunal," as the
students called Faculty meetings. "Mr.--!" said President
Caldwell in his severest tones, "the Faculty have learned with deep
regret that you have been in the last week absent from Prayers fourteen times.
What have you to say, Sir?" With bland and innocent tones the culprit
made the shocking answer, "I don't hold with Prars, Sir!" Without
deigning to discuss the constitutional provision that every man has the right
to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, he was sternly
informed that if he could not hold with Prayers, the University could not hold
with him.

The late Judge William H. Battle, of the Graduating class of 1820, is
authority for the happening on our University rostrum of an incident, which is
sometimes credited elsewhere. A Freshman, who had a face of portentous gravity,
had a coat of Revolutionary pattern, blue, with brass buttons, with short waist
and tail reaching nearly to his heels. It was the rule that the students in
turn should declaim a short extract of prose or poetry before the Faculty after
evening Prayers. When our Freshman's time came he mounted the rostrum and in a
peculiarly lugubrious and sing-song tone began Addison's Evening Hymn. He made
no gesture until he reached the lines:

"Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the wondrous tale,"
and then he reached for the tail of his Revolutionary coat,
and gently waved it in the air.

Some years later I witnessed a ludicrous scene something like that. A
Senior of 1853, Wm. B. Dusenbury, was usually so droll that every one expected
from him a humorous speech, called "a Funny." Senior speaking came
on, when every member of the class delivered an original oration. To the
disgust of his audience, whose risible muscles were ready, expecting to be
called into action by Dusenbury's wit, his speech was as dry as that of the
average orator. But fortunately for our fun a fly happened to alight on his
nose. Pausing in his utterance he gazed at the annoying animal in a cross-eyed
way, and deliberately proceeded to catch him. After opening his hand to
ascertain whether he had succeeded, he proceed with his speech. It was
inexpressibly ludicrous. There was a wild burst of applause and
inextinguishable laughter. Dr. Mitchell was sitting several yards in front of
me and it added to our amusement to see how his bald head and huge frame,
rocking for several minutes, gave evidence of his appreciation of the
comicalness of the situation.

Dr. William Hooper says, "Our geographical recitations were
enlivened by some rare scenes, one or two of which I will venture to
relate.

" 'Mr. Sawney,' says the Professor, 'can you
tell me anything about the animals of Greenland?' 'Yes, sir;
there's one called the seal.' 'What kind of animal is it?'
'I don't remember exactly, Sir, but I believe he says it is a very
amphib--a very amphibibobus kind of animal, Sir.' The boys plagued
him about this new kind of animal until he became as irritable as a nest of
wasps by the way-side. Another student whom we will disguise under the name of
Riggie, used to amuse various companions by telling the story upon Sawney. Now
Riggie was the last man that ought to have made people merry over the blunders
of others, for he had got his own nickname by his ludicrous pronunciation of
Riga, a Russian town on the Baltic. He was asked where were the chief towns in
Russia. He mentioned

several, and among them Riggie on
the Baltic, pronouncing the first syllable of the last word as it is heard in
balance. The name Riggie stuck to him forever afterwards. But it often happens
that he who smarts under a joke is most ready to avert pursuit by throwing
ridicule upon others. Sawney, goaded by Riggie's persecution, determined to
avenge himself; so he laid a trap for him. He got a friend to invite a company
including Riggie into his room, and to call for the story, while in the
meantime, Sawney concealed himself under the bed. Riggie, alas! unconscious of
the Trojan horse within the walls, was going on with his story, full sail, the
audience convulsed with the enjoyment and the anticipation of the paulo-post
future; when in the very fifth act of the drama, out popped Sawney from his
ambush, and pitched into the dismayed comedian. I shall not attempt to describe
the battle; but it may well be supposed that Sawney, with wounded pride and
bursting with long imprisoned rage, fought with more desperation, and that his
adversary startled by a foe emerging suddenly from ambush, must have fought at
a disadvantage."

Here is Dr. Hooper's description of Steward's Hall. "Do you wish
to know the ordinary bill of fare fifty years ago? As well as I recollect board
per annum was thirty-five dollars! This, as you may suppose, would not support
a very luxurious table, but the first body of Trustees were men who had seen
the Revolution and they thought that that sum would furnish as good rations as
those lived on who won our liberties. Coarse corn bread was the staple food. At
dinner the only meat was a fat middling of bacon, surmounting a pile of
coleworts; and the first thing after grace was said, (and sometimes before),
was for one man, by a single horizontal sweep of his knife, to separate the
ribs and lean from the fat, monopolize all the first to himself, and leave the
remainder for his fellows. At breakfast we had wheat bread and butter and
coffee. Our supper was coffee and the corn bread left at dinner, without
butter. I remember the shouts of rejoicing when we had assembled at the door,
and some one jumping up and looking in at the window, made
proclamation--'Wheat bread for supper, boys!' And that wheat
bread, over which such rejoicings were made, believe

me,
gentlemen and ladies, was manufactured out of wheat we call seconds, or, as
some term it, grudgeons. You will not wonder, if, after such a supper, most of
the students welcomed the approach of night, that as beasts of prey, they might
go a prowling, and seize upon everything eatable within the compass of one or
two miles; for, as I told you, our boys were followers of the laws of Lycurgus.
Nothing was secure from the devouring torrent. Beehives though guarded by a
thousand stings--all feathered tenants of the roost--watermelon and
potato patches, roasting ears, etc., in fine everything that could appease
hunger, was found missing in the morning. Those marauding parties at night were
often wound up with setting the village to rights."

A letter from State Treasurer Haywood in 1803 to Dr. Caldwell shows
that according to modern ideas complaint of Steward's Hall fare may have been
well founded. "In re matter of having Mr. and
Mrs. Love furnish butter at supper, we think with you that a supper of Tea and
Bread, or Coffee and Bread, without either butter or meat, has few charms, and
can be but illy fitted to gratify palates accustomed to better fare, but the
contract has been made and published and cannot be changed." He adds with
apparent naivete that there would be "no objection to students adding
Butter out of their private Purse, but not to be charged to parents or
guardians." He means that the University should not include such
self-furnished luxury in its official rendering of expenditures.

"Dr. Caldwell," adds Dr. Hooper, "seems to have made
it a part of his fixed policy, that no evil-doer should hope to escape by the
swiftness of his heels. He was in the habit of rambling about at night, in
search of adventures, and whenever he came across an unlucky wight engaged in
taking off a gate, building a fence across the street, driving a brother calf
or goat into the Chapel, or any similar exploit of genius, he no sooner hove in
sight than he gave chase."

"I will relate," said Dr. Hooper, one of these nocturnal
adventures, and it was only 'unum
e pluribus.'

"Dr. Caldwell was the podas okus Achilles of Chapel Hill, and he
had more occasion for powers of pursuit than of contest, for his antagonists
uniformly took to flight. You call this

a 'fast
age,' gentlemen, and so it is, but I don't know a man of this generation
who is faster than was Dr. Caldwell. He was not satisfied to take two days in
getting to Raleigh. He and I have set out for the metropolis in the morning,
and stopped the first night at Pride's, ten miles this side, such was the state
of the roads. Who knows but such snail-like progress as this suggested to him
the first idea of the present railroad from Beaufort to the mountains, the
honor of which, I believe, is now conceded to him? Now, O! muse, that didst
inspire Homer to describe Achilles' pursuit of Hector, three times round the
walls of Troy; or thou, gentle muse, who didst breathe thy soft afflatus upon
Ovid when he described the race between Apollo and fair Daphne; or thou,
Caledonian muse, who didst preside over Walter Scott, when he sung the race of
Fitz James after Murdock of Alpine, or over Robert Burns, when he made immortal
the flight of Tam O'Shanter from the witches,--either of you or all of the
nine at once, assist me to describe the race between President Caldwell and
Sophomore Faulkner (James T. Falconer), on the night of the....day
of........18... The President lived at that time where the President's new
residence is being erected, and was returning about bed-time "from
walking up and down the earth,"
1

1 The appropriateness of this sentence is evident, as his nickname
was Diabolus, or Bolus.

to see if any of the students were where
they ought not to be. As he was mounting the stile which stood where Dr.
Wheat's (now Dr. Alexander's) southeast corner now stands, he spied two young
men, busily engaged in building a fence from that corner across the street to
the opposite corner. The lads had just before his appearance heard that
portentous snapping of the ankles, which was a remarkable peculiarity of his
locomotion. As soon as they heard this premonitory crepitation, (a providential
warning of danger, like the rattle of the rattlesnake), one of the
fence-makers, whose nom de guerre was Dog,
skulked into a corner and was passed by. Faulkner sprang forward. But I forgot
that Homer always spends a line or two in describing his heroes, before he
brings them into action. So I must suspend the race, till I have given my
audience some idea of Faulkner's person and character. He was a tall, bony,
gaunt and grim looking fellow, with

shaggy threatening
eyebrow--had been at Norfolk during the war of 1813-14, as a soldier or
officer, and had contracted a soldier's love of adventure and frolic, and, like
Macbeth, would have run from nothing born of mortal, if he had been engaged in
a good cause. But building a fence across the street at night, his conscience
set down as a deed of darkness. His conscience made him a coward, but perhaps
it enabled him to run the faster, and he might have escaped had any but
"the swift-footed Achilles" given chase. But fate had doomed him to
lose this race:

Forth at full speed the fence-man flew--
Faulkner of Norfolk prove thy speed;
For ne'er had sophomore such need;
With heart of fire, and foot of wind,
The fierce avenger is behind;
Fate judges of the rapid strife,
The forfeit death, the prize is life.
* * * * *

Jove lifts the golden balances that show
The fates of mortal men and things below;
Here each contending hero's lot he tries,
And weighs with equal hand their destinies.
Low sinks the scale surcharged with Faulkner's fate--
Thus heaven's high powers the strife did arbitrate:
Just then the Fauldner tripped, and
prostrate fell,
And on the sprawling body pitched--Caldwell!

"Having thus disposed of one of the fence-makers, the victorious
President went back in quest of the other. After beating the bush awhile, he
returned to the college, where in the meantime, Faulkner, with clipped wings
and fallen crest, had gathered a party in one of the rooms, and was telling the
fortunes of the night. Little did he dream that his exulting conqueror was
standing close by, in the dark, listening to every word. "And what became
of Dog?" inquired one of the party. "Oh! Dog, he took to the woods,
and I dare say he is running yet." When the court met, the next day, to
try the delinquents, it appeared in evidence from the Tutor, that Dog was the
sobriquet of Junius Moore. He was accordingly startled by a summons served upon
him by old Daniel Bradley, the college constable, to appear before the Faculty
as particeps criminis with Faulkner. Gentlemen, you have read Cicero's graphic
description

of the confusion of face and dumbfoundedness
of Cataline's accomplices when the consul confronted them with all the damning
evidence of their guilt, you can conceive and none but you, the looks and
behavior of the two fence-makers, when Dog was thus unexpectedly arraigned at
the bar."

"As for Dog, he deserved a better name, for he was a native born
poet, and he and Philip Alston (a graduate of 1829), are among the few of our
alumni on whose birth Melpomene did smile. Had Moore lived he might have
written something to justify these praises. Alston lived long enough to leave
some memorial of his genius, but, alas! not long enough for our fame or for his
own.

"For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime--
Young Lycidas--and hath not left his peer!"

I cannot trace the Faulcon of the story--James F. Faulcon, of
Granville. Junius Alexander Moore was a son of James, and grandson of General
James Moore, of Revolutionary fame, whose father, Colonel Maurice Moore, was
second son of Governor James Moore, of South Carolina. His mother was Rebecca
Davis, aunt of the late eminent George Davis, of Wilmington, and Bishop Thomas
F. Davis, of South Carolina. Junius was a lawyer, removed to Alabama and died
in early manhood, leaving daughters but no son. The following elegy by him on a
famous Chapel Hill horse has come down to us. It certainly has merit.

1816. ON THE DEATH OF "SPREAD EAGLE."

Soft be the turf where rests thy honored head,
And sweet thy slumbers, much lamented "Spread."
May Spring's first dews thy sacred hillock lave,
And flowers perennial deck thy lonely grave.
Oft shall the pensive student, musing near
Thy home of rest, bestow the pitying tear--
Think on thy former worth--thy pristine grace;
Thy fair proportions and delightful pace,
Say to himself, while memory arrays
Full to his view thy feats of other days--
"Rest, honored Gray! above the ills of life--
Fatigue, starvation and incessant strife.
No more with blows thy honor shall be stain'd;
No more with oaths thy honest nature pain'd;
Page 229

No more unshod shall flinty rocks assail
Thy tender feet--or flies, thy graceful tail;
No more unpitied bend beneath thy load,
Or trace, with wearied steps, the tedious road,"
Thus shall he say--and with assiduous care,
Off from thy stone the covering bramble clear;
Carve with his knife the letters of thy praise,
And sing the Veteran Champion of the Chase.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPMAN PRESIDENT--HIS ADMINISTRATION.

In 1812 we find in the Raleigh Register an
enumeration of the improvements and advantages at the University. "In six
months the Principal (South) Building will be ready for the reception of
inhabitants. There will then be accommodations for eighty students. There will
be separate halls for the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, one for the
Library, and a Public Hall for Prayers. Each of the Society libraries contains
800 to 1,000 volumes, that of the University 1,500, a total of 3,100 to 3,500
volumes. A society has been recently formed for the study of sacred music. An
organ ordered to be built in New York is already finished. Public worship is
held every Sunday in Person Hall, which the students are bound to attend. The
Faculty consists of a President, three Professors and one Tutor. The Academy
for boys, under the charge of Rev. Abner W. Clopton, is subject to the
supervision of the President. In it there are four classes. Every possible
attention is paid to improvement in reading, writing, spelling and the English
Grammar. Wm. Mimerall is now a resident of Chapel Hill for the purpose of
teaching the French language, and is well qualified. The sessions run as
follows: The first from 1st of January to 24th of May. The second from the 20th
June to the 15th of November. The expenses are for the first session in the
dining-room and College, Diet, $30; Tuition, $10; Room-rent,
$1; Servant hire, $1.50; Library, 50 cents; Washing, $8;
candles and wood, $4; Bed, $3.50; Total, $58.50. For the
second session, the same. Plainness of dress and manners will be the
rule."

It is noticeable that "every possible attention" was not
promised for Arithmetic. Whether Rev. Clopton was weak in that branch, or that
he left it to be taught in the University classes we are not informed.

Dr. Caldwell, although his masterly temperament indicated that his
proper place in the University world was that of Chief Executive officer, was
also a devotee of Mathematics. At this period love of his chosen science
predominated over his sense

of duty for being chief
ruler in the University world. He longed for time in which he could complete
his work on Geometry and perfect himself in the knowledge of Astronomy and use
of astronomical instruments. He accordingly proposed to the trustees to appoint
a President in his place, and to give him the chair of Mathematics. They
graciously adopted the plan and elected to the first place Rev. Robert Hett
Chapman, D.D., a Presbyterian minister.

Rev. Dr. Chapman was a son of a Presbyterian minister of New York, who
was a warm Whig in Revolutionary days, Rev. Jedediah Chapman. Robert was born
in Orange, New Jersey, and graduated at Princeton in 1789. He was then
Instructor in Queen's College, New Brunswick, until licensed to preach in 1793.
For a year or two he was a Missionary in the Southern States and was then
pastor at Rahway, installed in 1796, and afterwards took charge of a church in
Cambridge, New York. To Dr. Caldwell's letter asking him to allow the use of
his name for the Presidency of this University, he complied reluctantly with
the request, saying, "in doing this I conceive that I should be called to
relinquish the dearest object of my heart, the advancement of the cause of our
Glorious Redeemer, but I would hope that my usefulness in this respect would be
enlarged." He adds, "I am in the midst of usefulness and reputation
in this part of the world, but my salary, which the people have refused to
increase, is utterly inadequate to the expense of a growing family." The
letter is dated February 12, 1812.

The Committee on Nominations in their report to the Board December 12,
1812, feelingly state that they accepted the resignation of Dr. Caldwell, but
"the unpleasant forebodings at the resignation of an officer so
distinguished for his zeal, usefulness and talents is in some sort dissipated
by his willingness to accept the Professorship of Mathematics." The Board
unanimously elected Dr. Chapman President, with a salary of $1,200, and
Dr. Caldwell, Professor, with $1,000. The Trustees present were:
Governor Wm. Hawkins, Chairman ex-officio; Rev. Joseph Caldwell, John Haywood,
Archibald D. Murphey, Duncan Cameron, Calvin Jones, David Stone, Atlas Jones,
Henry Potter, Montfort Stokes and Robert Williams, the Treasurer.

The latter must not be confounded with Robert Williams,
M.D., of Pitt, also a Trustee. The General Assembly promptly elected the new
President a member of the Board of Trustees.

The administration of Dr. Chapman is generally thought to have been a
failure, but his defects seem to have been somewhat exaggerated, and some of
the troubles proceeded evidently from the hot party spirit engendered by the
war. He was a man of sincere piety, of strong principles, zealous in the spread
of religion. He was a preacher, according to the testimony of Chief Justice
Nash and Dr. James E. Morrison, very earnest, interesting and effective. Judge
Nash said: "He was more highly gifted with power on his knees than any
man I know. His public prayers warmed the hearts of all who heard them."
His manner in preaching was earnest and tender and he was successful beyond
what is common in securing attention.

There was to his management of the University, however, a fatal
obstacle. He was a Peace Federalist and his students were in favor of the war.
It is difficult for us at this day to realize the keen disappointment and even
rage felt by our people at the disasters on land, such as the surrender of
Hull, the failure of the Canadian Invasion, and the capture of the Capital, and
on the other hand the wild exultation over our naval victories. The one
conspicuous land victory, gained after the signing of the treat, of peace, that
of New Orleans, carried the American commander into the Presidential chair.

The Republican leaders had the address to turn the dissatisfaction
arising from the imbecile conduct of the war from themselves to their
opponents. They claimed the credit of all the victories and placed the
discredit of defeats on the odious Federalists, who, they alleged, gave
blue-light signals to British ships on our coast, intrigued at Hartford to join
New England with Old England, encouraged Great Britain and discouraged
Americans by denouncing the war as unjust and inexpedient. In the minds of most
people Federalist was synonymous with Traitor.

Dr. Chapman was too honest to conceal or to tone down his views. The
friction which the strict and irritative methods of discipline made inevitable
at all times, was considered more

harsh in the days of
unreasoning partisan hatreds. If the good Doctor after peace was declared had
continued unwaveringly in his executive position he might have lived down the
memory of the outbreaks, which are connected so unpleasantly with his name. Dr.
Caldwell had experiences quite as disastrous to his reputation as an
administrator, but he continued so long and bravely in his position that his
failures were forgotten in the light of his subsequent successes. Dr. Chapman
preferred to go back to his more congenial work as a pastor and left his
reputation as a University President to the mercy of adverse critics.

I give sketches of two outbreaks, which occurred during his
administration, which illustrate the peculiar difficulties under which he
labored, as well as the spirit of the times in Chapel Hill.

About twelve months after his inauguration in January, 1814, a series
of outrages at night was perpetrated on his property. Dr. Caldwell, who could
not resist the impulse to take the place of leader, determined to ferret out
the offenders by process of law. Accordingly he applied to a Justice of the
Peace, Major Pleasant Henderson, for a warrant against the unknown
perpetrators, intending to call up all the students and examine them on oath.
He was unaware that such precepts, called "general warrants," had
been resisted successfully in England by John Wilkes, had been decided to be
illegal by Chief Justice Camden, that our people were so much interested in the
controversy as to name one county Wilkes and another Camden, and had prohibited
such warrants in our fundamental law, the Declaration of Rights. He forgot in
his zeal that similar warrants, called Writs of Assistance to enforce the
Navigation Acts, had led to armed resistance in New England and other
commercial sections. The Justice refused the application, being rightly
instructed as to the unlawfulness of general warrants; but the fiery doctor,
who could be no more easily diverted from his purpose than a well-trained
blood-hound from the track of a fleeing criminal, amended the precept by
inserting the names of five students. A solemn court was held. The panic in
this little community cannot be imagined. There were "great searchings

of spirit." The charges were, 1st., breaking into
and entering the stable of President Chapman, and cutting the hair from the
tail of a horse of the said Chapman; 2d., "for taking away and secreting
a cart, the property of said Chapman;" 3d., "entering said
Chapman's premises and turning over or throwing down a house; 4th., taking from
its hinges and carrying away one of said Chapman's gates."

It is interesting to note the behavior of the students under this
trying ordeal. It is rather surprising that there was no combination for the
purpose of refusing to answer. Possibly the Federalists among the students
sympathized with the President. Some declared emphatically that they knew
nothing about the matter. Among these were Aaron V. Brown, Bryan Grimes, father
of the gallant General of the same name, and John Y. Mason. Others said that
they knew nothing themselves, but gave the names of suspected persons, some of
whom were undoubtedly not guilty. A few gave direct evidence tending to
criminate Chambers, Thornton, Peebles, Knox and Haywood, the men charged by Dr.
Caldwell, and as these refused to exculpate themselves, they were probably
dismissed from the University, though the record has been lost. I knew Francis
A. Thornton nearly half a century afterwards, when he was a member of the
Secession Convention of 1861, a neighbor of Nat. Macon, a mild-mannered,
gentlemanly, venerable man, with no suspicion of tar on his hands, tho' he was
a fire-eating Secessionist. Thomas J. Haywood lived to be a Supreme Court Judge
of Tennessee. All were probably good men moved by party feelings. The justice's
examination violated all the rules of evidence. Leading questions were asked,
the witnesses were required to give their suspicions, and hearsay evidence was
even admitted as to what suspicions were entertained by others, and as to what
students knew of any of the perpetrators. Among the innocent men whose names
were mentioned as suspected was the eminent divine, Dr. Francis L. Hawks. A
few, among them Bedford Brown and Edmund Wilkins, lawyer of Virginia, refused
to answer these illegal questions, but strong men, such as David F. Caldwell,
George C. Dromgoole, Charles L. Hinton, Charles Manly, Willie P. Mangum, appear
to have made a

clean breast of the facts they knew as
well as the imaginations of their hearts. This is strong evidence that there
were not a few who sympathized with the insulted President in his views. There
was a strong anti-war party in the State, probably in the University, but they
were of the modest and silent order.

Dr. Chapman was likewise insulted by receiving an anonymous letter
which is quite unique, showing another outrage on his property, not included in
the warrant. It was superscribed "Chapel Hill," and is as
follows:

"DEAR SIR:--Having been informed that you are anxious to know why your gate-post was decorated with tar and feathers, this is to inform you that it was intended by the patriotic students to deride Toryism, and as a monument to the memory of the inspired politician and designing traitor.

In a balmage, Sir, of delicious tar you will be as secure as Pharoah and, in a hieroglyphic of feathers, rival in finery all the mummies of Egypt."

I am yours, etc.,

FRIEND TO RELIGION, BUT AN ENEMY TO HYPOCRISY.'

This precious morceau of literature proves that the persecution was
distinctly in resentment for the supposed leaning to Federalism of the clerical
President. The insult is the more pointed because in the direction he is
dignified only as "Mr. Robt. Chapman," ignoring his official and
ministerial character.

In November following the Faculty report that, though during this year
they have passed through troublesome times, they have been enabled to stand at
their post and maintain the authority of the institution. Some of the persons
suspended last session have returned, and, with scarcely an exception, have
been orderly. This session has been characterized by order and attention to
business, with the exception of some irregularities originating in Steward's
Hall, and for which one student was suspended. It is essential to the growing
prosperity of the University that further suitable provision be made on this
subject (i. e., management of Stewards Hall). With the expectation that the
Board will make such provision the Faculty consider the Seminary as in a truly
flourishing condition.

The other outbreak was on September 18, 1816. It injured the
reputation of the President still more because the sympathy

of the public was strongly with the students rather than
the Faculty. The following account is substantially correct:

Wm. Biddle Shepard, a very able member of the Senior class, belonging
to an influential family of New Bern, connected with the Donnells, the Blounts,
the Bryans, the Pettigrews and others, had some sentences in his oration
submitted for correction, of a strong political character favorable to the
Republican party. These sentences, the President, exercising a discretion
vested in him, cut out and ordered Shepard not to deliver them. This order,
when the speech was delivered in public, was disobeyed, whereupon the President
promptly commanded him to take his seat. The orator insisted on proceeding with
his address. Numbers of the students shouted, "Go on! go on!" The
prompter, Wm. Plummer, continued to perform the duty which he had undertaken.
Shepard finished his speech in defiance of the President, being vociferously
encouraged and applauded. The next day the students had a meeting in the Chapel
and passed resolutions upholding the rightfulness of his and their conduct.

The Faculty acted promptly and sternly. Forty-six of the participants
were summoned before them. Shepard was suspended for six months, and also
George C. Dromgoole, for being the leader in upholding him. It was a material
part of the charge against them, that they declared they were justifiable. The
Trustees added the severer sentence of expulsion, declaring that the interest
of the University required that the disobedience of which they were guilty
should be punished in the most exemplary way. Thomas N. Mann was suspended for
six months for participating in the riot, and "refusing to admit his
guilt." Plummer for prompting, applauding and afterwards justifying his
conduct, was suspended for four months.

The punishment of those, who in a public meeting disapproved the
action of the Faculty and upheld the conduct of Shepard and his aiders and
abettor, was conditional. All who would in writing acknowledge, 1st., that
those who applauded Shepard were guilty of gross disorder and disrespect of
authority; 2d., that on the next morning they transgressed their duty as
students and as good members of society, by proceeding

with tumultuous noise and riotous behavior to the Public Hall, and uniting in
an unlawful and disorderly assembly for the purpose of opposing the Faculty and
violating the laws; 3d., that they hoped for forgiveness and solemnly promised
faithfully to submit to the laws of the University and deport themselves as
orderly members of society. A few refused to sign the paper and were suspended.
Among the signers were such orderly students as Wm. M. Green, Wm. D. Moseley,
Hugh Waddell, and Hamilton C. Jones.

Notices of the suspensions were sent to all other colleges.

In talking with the students of that day after they had become elderly
men I derived the impression clearly that the President was generally blamed
for his conduct in this matter. It was thought that, even if he concluded that
Shepard's act was worthy of severe punishment, he should have allowed him to
finish and prosecuted him afterwards. I happen to know that Plummer's father,
Kemp Plummer, next year a Trustee, sustained his son. The criticism appears to
be just, but certainly the President is not censurable for enforcing a law of
the Trustees forbidding political speeches.

All the actors in this riot achieved success in life. The principal,
Shepard, was afterwards a leading lawyer, and member of the State and national
Legislatures. Plummer stood high as a lawyer and business man, as Chairman of
the County Court of Warren, conducting its business with ability. Mann, after a
brilliant beginning as a lawyer, member of the General Assembly and Charge d'
Affaires to Guatemala, which position he obtained in the hope of curing the
pulmonary consumption, under which he was suffering, passed away in early
manhood. The fact has come down to us that Plummer, while unable to see the
impropriety of his conduct, was desirous of returning and obtaining his
diploma. His father, thinking he had been treated unjustly, refused to allow
it. Mosely, Dromgoole, Waddell, Jones, Leak and Green are mentioned
hereafter.

In October, 1816, in revenge doubtless for the action of the Faculty,
a forerunner of the modern dynamiters perpetrated a dastardly outrage on one of
the Tutors, John Patterson. Wm. M. Green, in a letter to one of the suspended,
Martin Armstrong,

told the story. "While sitting
alone a few nights since I was startled by a tremendous report, when on inquiry
I found that a brass knob from one of the doors had been filled with powder and
placed before Patterson's door with a lighted match at the end of it. While in
this state Glascock discovered as he thought a piece of fire dropped by
accident and picked up this affair, but immediately dropped it. He had
proceeded only a few steps when it exploded, but without injuring him."
It is easy to see that his life, or his eyesight was in imminent danger.

So far as the discipline extended the Faculty were victorious. Peter
O. Picot, of Plymouth, writes to his cousin. Alfred M. Slade, who had been sent
home for some fault, in doleful jeremiads: "All quiet here; the students
seem to have lost their energy and yield implicitly to the yoke. The storm has
blown over, but it has made impressions not easily to be eradicated, for this
place looks like some half-deserted village, where you may see its inhabitants
collected in small groups, talking over the news of the day, some commiserating
your unjust fate, and others pouring out invectives against the Faculty for
their palpably erroneous decision and rash suspensions." * * * The
suspension of Shepard, Plummer and Mann * * * was as unjust and unfounded as
disgraceful to its authors, who seem to be callous to equity and
justice." In a letter written three weeks afterwards he says:
"Never was a place so much altered as this. The Chapel looks destitute.
No crowds to hear the news are seen running before a member of the Faculty. All
is still! All is quiet! With implicit obedience they bend to the yoke, and
undergo with patience the bondage of supercilious domination." * * *
"The poor Philanthropic members are to be pitied for they have but
thirteen members."

Wm. Mercer Green, from boyhood a model of correct behavior, wrote to
his friend, Martin A. B. Armstrong, one of the victims: "All again is
quiet; the countenances of our most noble and impartial Faculty are unclouded,
and those of the boys marked with contempt. The thought of the near approach of
the examination has dispelled all others, and the absence of the suspended, we
are only able to call to mind when we look into the vacant rooms." Then
follows an evidence of the tact

for which Bishop Green
was distinguished through life. "I speak of others, my friend; rest
assured you are not forgotten."

While the first impulse of the students was to take sides against the
Faculty there was a partial reaction. Hamilton C. Jones wrote in the February
following the disturbance that "Shepard and Dromgoole are very much
censured by all the sober part of the community. Shepard's speech has lost its
popularity, and notwithstanding the great puffing of the New Bern editor has
been stigmatized by every judge of literary merit as a flowery piece of
nonsense." It should be noted, however, that Jones and Shepard belonged
to different societies and feeling between the two was then bitter. In the
letter in which the above criticism occurs is found the following: "The
Dialectic Society is still in a very flourishing condition. The other
(Philanthropic), though increasing in numbers, degenerates in point of
talent." The writer too, though the Federalist party was practically
extinct, sympathized with its principles, and afterwards followed Clay into the
wigwam of the Whigs, while Shepard continued to be a warm Republican and became
a Democratic leader.

It is altogether probable that this unfortunate trouble led to Dr.
Chapman's leaving the institution, for at the meeting of the Board of Trustees
next after its occurrence, November 23, 1816, he "in solemn form resigned
his office as President of the University." The words "in solemn
form" have an ominous sound. His resignation was certainly associated in
the public mind with the disturbance, which political partisans and advocates
of free speech declared to be evidence of his incapacity. The letter of
resignation dated three days before asserts that his duties had been performed
"faithfully and successfully," and that he was desirous to be more
fully devoted to the gospel ministry. He gave notice that his place would be
vacant at the close of the year 1817, but the Board accepted the resignation to
take effect immediately, agreeing, however, unanimously to pay him one-half
year's salary ($800), and to allow him to retain the President's house
until the end of the next session. There is a notable absence of praises of his
past services and regrets at his departure. Judge Cameron wrote to Judge
Murphey on November

27, 1816, that he was glad Dr.
Chapman had resigned--that he wished he had done so twelve months ago.
"It would have been much better for himself and the University." He
presumed that Mr. Caldwell and the Committee of Appointments would open an
official correspondence with Dr. Neil on the subject of the Presidency, but he
sincerely wished that Mr. Caldwell will resume the office himself. Dr. Neil was
not again mentioned; probably Dr. Wm. Neill, a Presbyterian clergyman of
Philadelphia, President of Dickinson College in 1824-'29, an author.

The number of students, however, did not indicate any failure in Dr.
Chapman's administration. For his term of four years the aggregate was 352,
averaging 88 yearly, while for the four preceding years under Caldwell the
numbers were 209, averaging 52 per annum. There were 63 graduates of Chapman's
term, averaging about sixteen, while for the four preceding years there were
24, averaging six per annum. Of course most of the improvement was due to the
spread of the desire and the means for attaining higher education. The war
evidently stirred up the people. Taking the four years after Chapman left and
Caldwell resumed the reins we have 465 students, averaging 116, and 50
graduates, averaging 12 1-2 per annum. The next four years showed still better
with 640 matriculates, averaging 160, and 119 graduates, averaging 30. The
reason for this rapid increase of prosperity will appear hereafter.

Doubtless, however, Dr. Chapman must have had unpleasant recollections
of Chapel Hill. He had a grievous private affliction in the death of a
daughter. In the village graveyard is a marble slab, which records that
Margaretta Blanch, daughter of Rev. Robert H. and Hannah Chapman, died November
25, 1814, in the sixteenth year of her age.

We have the testimony of Rev. Dr. James E. Morrison, a Tutor under
Chapman, that he "introduced a most salutary moral change." He
required the study of the Bible, as a textbook, and was the chief factor in
organizing the Presbyterian church at Chapel Hill.

The teaching of the Bible probably had a flavor of Calvinism. In 1814
we find one class of the University Grammar School

charged with 20 questions on the Catechism and 21 chapters in a book entitled,
"Beauties of the Bible." Another class had 39, a third 38, and the
fourth 77 questions in the Catechism. The Senior class of the same school for
entrance into the University were examined on four books of the Aeneid, ten
chapters of St. John's Gospel in Greek, and 37 questions in the larger
Catechism, well known as that used in the Presbyterian church, issued by the
Westminister Assembly.

Dr. Chapman's degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred by Williams'
College, Mass., in 1815. After leaving the University he became pastor of
Bethel church in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1823 he had a church near
Winchester, Virginia, and then labored for a year or two as a Missionary in the
hill country of North Carolina. His next and last charge was at Covington,
Kentucky, in 1830. He was chosen to be a member of the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian church in 1833, and died at Winchester on his return, June 18,
1833, and is there buried. In 1797 he married Hannah Arnette, of Elizabethtown,
New Jersey, who died at St. Louis, July 7, 1845. They left seven children, one
of whom was Rev. Robert Hett Chapman, D.D., who is buried in the cemetery of
the Presbyterian church at Asheville, N. C.

Of the teachers of the University during his term I have already
mentioned Professor Rhea. A sketch of Tutor Hooper will be hereafter given. I
find no further mention of John Harper Hinton than that he was Principal of
Caswell Academy at Yanceyville in 1818, and probably afterwards. He was a
native of Wake County.

James Morrison, who was Tutor from 1814 to 1817, studied divinity
under Dr. Chapman and was ordained by the Orange Presbytery in 1817. He was for
a while a teacher in the Raleigh Academy. He was pastor of New Providence
church, Rockbridge County, Virginia, from 1819 to 1857. He was born in 1795 and
died in 1870. Dr. Charles W. Dabney, once Director of the Experiment Station of
North Carolina and State Chemist, then President of the University of
Knoxville, and now of the University of Cincinnati, is a grandson of Dr. James
Morrison.

School, has been heretofore described. He died March 21,
1831, praised in a newspaper of the day as an "eminent and devoted member
of the Baptist church, and one of the earliest and most efficient promoters of
the temperance cause, and was equally attentive to the duties of the society of
which he was a member."

The University bells of the early period were very inferior. A second
was bought in 1813. We are told that this was bought in Fayetteville; it,
however, was so inferior that seven years afterwards another was procured. This
latter on the procurement of the new was hung in the back yard of Dr.
Mitchell's lot to be used when the clapper of the other was stolen or in
hiding. About the same time the Trustees gave $50 for the transportation
of the organ procured for the University by private contributions. This effort
to make worship in the Chapel more attractive was supplemented by authorizing
Tutor Hooper to procure shutters and a chandelier for the same.

On the resignation of Professor Rhea in 1814 the experiment was tried
of a "Senior Tutor," with a salary of $500, authorized to
live out of the college buildings and to pay his own board, instead of eating
without charge with the students at Commons. At the same time the Committee of
Appointments were authorized to abolish Commons and rent out the building if
they thought best. The dissatisfaction implied in this resolution resulted
doubtless from the rise of prices in consequence of the war. The Committee
concluded to add improvements to the building, paying Bennett Parton
$456, and to allow an increase of 10 per cent (to $33) in price
of board. The Senior Tutor was William Hooper, whose health, always delicate,
probably required the superior diet of his mother's table. There were other
Tutors, James E. Morrison and Abner Stith, and for part of the time John Harper
Hinton. In 1815 the Committee on Salaries reported the salaries to be:

To meet the expenses the University owned 314 shares of bank
stock, paying 8 per cent

$2,512

Eighty students paying tuition

1,600

$4,112

The Committee were impressed with the policy, as well as the justice
of increasing the salaries of the highest officers by contingent perquisites,
depending on their industry, activity and zeal. On their recommendation,
therefore, the Board appropriated the dividends from the bank stock and
one-half of tuition receipts to be paid to all the officers and the other half
to increasing the salaries of the President and Professors only, "in
acknowledgement of their ability, industry and unwearied diligence, by which it
is hoped and expected they will acquit themselves." This explains why the
half of Dr. Chapman's salary was stated on the acceptance of his resignation as
$800. The President was authorized also to cut firewood near the field
set apart for his use, out of sight of the village. This field was west of the
Pittsboro road. In the course of time it was found unprofitable for
agricultural purposes, and the Public School Committee was authorized to build
a cabin on it for a school house.

In the following year a singular and ambitious plan was devised, under
the appearance of improving the institution, of indirectly increasing the
salaries to meet the high prices of the war. The Faculty were authorized to
clear out the land to the east of the campus on the roads leading to Raleigh,
"so as to command a full view of the distant horizon over Point Prospect
(now Piney) to the east." As there were two roads, one on the summit of
the ridge and the other about a hundred yards to the north, this permission
included at least twenty acres of good oak and hickory.

The reply made by the Board to Treasurer Williams' request for a clerk
to ascertain balances due prior to his term, shows that they were not
indiscriminately generous. They voted that the Treasurer "from long
experience and knowledge of the fiscal affairs of the University must be much
better qualified to unravel anything mysterious than a clerk." They
thought it his duty to make the investigation and recommended that he
"devote

such portion of his time as will enable
him to effect an eclaircisement of the accounts."

The Board showed their caution in another ruling. They declined to
warrant the title to escheated land sold by them because if the title is good
it will not enhance the price as the purchaser is sure to investigate for
himself. If the title is doubtful they ought not to warrant.

One of the old-time "blue laws" was abolished at this
meeting. The by-law forbidding students to wear hats in the buildings was
repealed, but with the provision that "they shall not wear hats while
addressing a member of the Faculty." An ordinance was likewise adopted
that applicants for admission delaying to report more than twenty-four hours
after reaching Chapel Hill shall be in danger of being refused.

During this regime the excuses for absences from Morning Prayers were
noted in a book. I copy some of them to show that our grandfathers acted as we
do. The answers were "Sick," "Unwell," "Was not
waked," "Tardy," "Indisposed," "Did not
hear the bell," "Weather bad," "Asleep." There is
no record of any punishments for non-attendance.

In 1815 a tardy sale was made of part of the Gerrard lands. The
statement shows the trouble experienced in the location and the sale of land
warrants in Tennessee, caused partly by carelessness and partly by fraud. Judge
Potter and Treasurer Haywood, a majority of the committee, reported that
Gerrard's will mentioned 13,000 acres. A memorandum found among his papers
shows only 11,364 acres, so it is evident that he sold some after making the
will. He gave 640 acres for locating his lands, leaving only 10,724. He
requested that his "service right," 2,560 acres, should not be
sold, so deducting these they had 8,164. Of these McKenzie's 640 tract was
"land lost," i. e., could not be found and this must be subtracted,
leaving 7,524. The following were also "land lost:"

Taking off these there were left 4,352 acres. Appraisers appointed by
the agent of the Board valued these at $6,363.50. Col. Wm. Polk bought
at $6,400, payable one-half cash and the rest when needed to pay for
bank stock, which the Board had resolved to buy. As a still further irritation
it was discovered after the sale that 428 acres had been leased for several
years, so the price of this tract was held up until this matter could be
adjusted.

The General Assembly had made provision for issuing other warrants in
the place of "lost lands," but it took time, trouble and expense to
recover them, and in the meantime prices fell and sales were still further
delayed.

It is certain that Dr. Caldwell was sincerely desirous of continuing
in his Professorship of Mathematics. He endeavored vigorously to find a
successor to Chapman, of sufficient learning and administrative gifts, but in
vain. In addition to Dr. Neill, already mentioned, the office was tendered to
Rev. Lewis von Schweinitz, D.D., LL.D., of the Moravian church, who in addition
to his theological attainments was eminent as a Botanist. Both nominees
declined and the strong pressure on Caldwell prevailed.

CALDWELL AGAIN PRESIDENT--GRADUATES--1813-1819.

Rev. Dr. Joseph Caldwell was a second time elected President of the
University on December 14, 1816. According to the stateliness of the old school
a regular commission was issued to him:

The President and Trustees of the University of North Carolina--

To the President. Doctor Joseph Caldwell:

Reposing confidence in your integrity. learning and ability, we do hereby nominate and appoint you President of the University of North Carolina, with all the powers, immunities, compensations and endowments thereto belonging, to commence the first day of January, 1817.

(Signed) JOHN HAYWOOD.

H. POTTER.

WILL POLK.

The answer of the old school President was likewise in writing. He
said, "with diffidence I will accept it, and if I shall ever be found to
have gone wrong in discharge of the duties,

I hope that
the members of the Committee and of the Board in general will be ready to make
allowances for defects, which may easily in me proceed from frailty and error
without the intention of evil."

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by the
University in the same year.

The Trustees, who accepted Dr. Chapman's resignation, were Wm. Miller,
Governor and Chairman; Judge Henry Potter, John Winslow, James Iredell, Calvin
Jones, Atlas Jones, Robert Williams (of Raleigh); Henry Seawell, Robert H.
Jones, Wm. Polk, Lewis Williams, Simmons J. Baker and A. D. Murphey. Dr.
Chapman is also mentioned as present. Most of these were present at the
election of Dr. Caldwell on December 17, 1816.

The Faculty records are singularly deficient during Chapman's
administration and for 1817. The following, although incomplete, is accurate, I
think:

The Graduates of 1813 were in number 14. The report of the class
standing of the members has been lost. The following attained distinction.
William E. Bailey was a Professor of Ancient Languages in the College of
Charleston; William S. Blackledge was a Representative in Congress; John H.
Hinton and Abner Stith, Tutors in the University of North Carolina and
afterwards Classical teachers. William J. Polk was a prominent physician.

Of the matriculates with the class not graduating, Elijah Graves was a
Presbyterian preacher and a teacher of repute; Alexander Long, a very popular
physician, and Romulus M. Saunders, a Judge, Congressman and Minister to Spain;
Robert Williams, State Adjutant-General and Secretary and Treasurer of the
University.

To Rev. Jeremiah Atwater was given the degree of Doctor of Divinity
(D. D.)

The Senior class of 1814, in numbers 16, was of a high grade. Aaron V.
Brown was a member of the Tennessee Legislature, Governor, Representative in
Congress and Postmaster-General; Charles L. Hinton, a planter, Trustee,
Secretary and Treasurer of the University, and State Treasurer; Charles Manly,
a Trustee

of the University 42 years, and Secretary and
Treasurer 46 years, Governor of the State; Samuel Pickens, Comptroller of
Alabama; James Morrison, a Tutor in this institution and a Presbyterian
preacher.

Of the Graduates of 1815, in numbers 18, some became famous.

John H. Bryan was elected to Congress and the State Senate at the same
time, and chose the first. He was a Trustee of the University 45 years. Robert
R. King was a Tutor and then a preacher. Francis L. Hawks, D.D., LL.D., an
eminent preacher and author, in early life Reporter of the Supreme Court of N.
C.; Edward Hall, Judge of the Superior Court; Willie P. Mangum was a Judge,
Senator of the United States and President of the Senate; Mitchell was Clerk of
the General Assembly and President of the Bank of Tennessee; Richard Dobbs
Spaight was the last Governor elected by the General Assembly.

The honors are not mentioned in the reports, but tradition gives the
highest to Croom, Bryan, Hawks and Spaight.

We have the exercises of the class of 1815. The Latin Salutatory was
spoken by Isaac Croom, the Mathematical Oration by Richard Dobbs Spaight. There
was a "Forensic Dispute," anticipatory of the Know Nothing Party,
"Whether Civil Offices should be open to Foreigners?" Matthew
McClung opened as "Respondent," Henry L. Plummer, called the
Opponent, replied, and Hugh M. Stokes closed as Replicator. Another Forensic
Dispute was "Whether Theatrical Amusements are Beneficial?" between
Robert Hinton, Respondent, Semuel D. Hatch, Opponent, and Robert King,
Replicator. A third dispute was between Priestly Mangum, Stephen Sneed and
Edward Hill, the subject being "Should a Penitentiary be immediately
erected?" This was followed by an oration on Natural Philosophy, by
Stokely D. Mitchell, of Tennessee. In the afternoon there was the English
Salutatory by John H. Bryan, followed by a three-handed dispute as to whether
students should be subject to Military Duty, a theme which became very acute
during our Civil War. The Respondent was Matthew Moore, the Opponent James
Hooper, the Replicator George F. Graham. Francis L. Hawks closed with the
Valedictory. His oratorical gifts were even then widely known and warmly
admired.

"Should a Professorship of Law be established at the
University?", James W. Bryan.

"The Mahometan Religion," Thomas Bond.

"American Literature," John W. Norwood.

"Should the American Colonization Society receive the patronage
of the Public," Robert H. Booth.

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Rev. Levi
Holbrook.

Mr. Francis L. Hawks, who had received the degree of Master of Arts
from Yale College, was awarded the ad eundem degree
from this University.

Of the 16 Graduates of the class of 1816, those most notable were:
William Julius Alexander, a Trustee, member of the Legislature, Speaker of the
House and Solicitor of his district; Thomas J. Haywood, Judge in Tennessee;
John DeRosset, physician of great promise, dying young; Charles Applewhite
Hill, who left the University in 1804, Principal of Classical schools, preacher
and State Senator; John Patterson, Tutor U. N. C. and preacher; James W.
McClung, Speaker of the House of Tennessee; John Y. Mason, LL.D.,
Attorney-General of the United States, a Judge in Virginia, Secretary of the
Navy and Minister to France.

It was at this Commencement that the degree of Doctor of Divinity was
conferred on Rev. Joseph Caldwell, the newly elected President.

There were eleven of the Graduates of 1817. The most eminent was John
M. Morehead, a strong lawyer, Governor of the

State,
President and chief promoter of the North Carolina and other railroads, a chief
factor in the industrial development of the State, an active Trustee of the
University for 38 years, member of the Confederate Congress. Holt was a
physician, but especially distinguished as the pioneer in the introduction of
blooded stock. He was the first President of the State Agricultural
Society.

Of the non-graduates, Bedford Brown was a member of the Conventions of
1835 and 1861, President of the State Senate, United States Senator; David F.
Caldwell, Speaker of the State Senate, Judge and President of a bank; William
B. Shepard, member of the State Senate and of Congress; John G. A. Williamson,
member of the Legislature, Consul to Venezuela, Charge' d' affairs at
Caraccas.

For the term ending in June, the second half of the session, the
strange spectacle was presented of a University without a Professor, Dr.
Caldwell and his Tutors caring for the institution. They were William Hooper,
Principal Tutor, William D. Moseley and Robert Rufus King, followed in the
autumn by John Motley Morehead and Priestly H. Mangum. Moseley some years
afterwards obtained double compensation on the ground that King was forced to
resign on account of his unpopularity with the students in the fall of 1817,
and double duties were devolved on him. He and President Caldwell were the
entire Faculty until Professor Mitchell began work in February, 1818.

The Trustees concluded that the Principal Tutor, Wm. Hooper, whose
learning and teaching power were admitted, should be elevated to the Chair of
Ancient Languages. This was done and the office of Principal Tutor was
abolished never to be restored. The salary of the Professor of Ancient
Languages was fixed at $800 per annum. At the same time tuition was
raised to $30 per annum.

The Tutors of this period were men of power. Morehead and Moseley are
described elsewhere. Priestly Mangum, brother of the more eminent Willie P.
Mangum, was a useful citizen and a safe lawyer, for years Solicitor of the
county of Orange, and also a Commoner in the Legislature. Robert Rufus King

was a Presbyterian minister of promise, called by death
from his work in 1822. But it was impossible for young men, however able, to
have proper restraining influence among 108 youths, unaccustomed to discipline.
We have glimpses of wild deeds in this year. So incensed were the Trustees that
they instructed the President to invoke the aid of the criminal law to punish
the perpetrators of outrages on the buildings and grove in the fall of
1817.

MITCHELL, OLMSTEAD AND KOLLOCK, PROFESSORS.

The Committee of Appointments reported to the Board in November that
they had selected for the Chair of Chemistry Denison Olmstead, a graduate of
Yale, and had allowed him a year's study there before coming to the University.
For the Chair of Mathematics, made vacant by the elevation of Dr. Caldwell,
they had searched in vain in many directions for a suitable man, but, not
discouraged, they had at length found Mr. Elisha Mitchell, of Connecticut, who
had accepted their offer.

The choice was exceedingly fortunate as the newcomer was not only
accomplished and able, but was resolved, like his President, to live and die
among us. He was born August 19, 1793, and was, therefore, 24 years old. His
native place was Washington, Litchfield County, Connecticut. His father was a
farmer, Abner by name; his mother Phoebe Eliot, a lineal descendant of John
Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, whose Bible translated into their language
is one of the famous books of the world. From her grandfather, Rev. Jared
Eliot, M.D. and D.D., one of the most noted American savants of his day, he
inherited his fondness for Natural Philosophy, Botany and Mineralogy. He was
prepared for Yale College by Rev. Azel Bachus, a noted teacher, afterwards
President of Hamilton College.

At Yale he graduated in 1813, one of the best scholars in his class.
Among his class-mates were Denison Olmsted, destined to be his colleague; James
Longstreet, author of Georgia Scenes and President of the University of
Mississippi; Rev. George Singletary, an influential Episcopal clergyman; Thomas
P. Devereux, an able lawyer and Reporter of our Supreme

Court; and George E. Badger, an eminent Senator and Secretary of the Navy, who
did not graduate.

After leaving Yale young Mitchell taught in the academy of Dr.
Eigenbrodt at Jamaica, on Long Island. In 1815 we find him in charge of a
school for girls in New London. The next year he was appointed a Tutor in his
college, where he discharged his duties so faithfully and well that the
Chaplain of the Senate of the United States, a son of President Dwight, of
Yale, recommended him to Wm. Gaston, then a Representative in Congress from
North Carolina and a Trustee of its University, as learned in Mathematics, as a
cultured man of letters generally and as skillful in teaching.

On notification of his appointment Mr. Mitchell spent a few weeks at
the Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts, receiving a license to
preach as a Congregational minister. He reached Chapel Hill on the 31st of
January, 1818, and at once entered on his nearly forty years' service, with the
intelligence, zeal and success for which he was distinguished. He was ordained
a minister in the Presbyterian church in 1821.

In the fall of 1819 young Mitchell went back to Connecticut in order
to take to himself a wife. His bride was handsome, intellectual and well
educated, Maria S. North, daughter of a physician of New London. Mrs. Spencer
in the University Magazine of October, 1884, gives extracts from letters from
her after her arrival at Chapel Hill. The first is dated January 1, 1820. I
abridge the narrative. It shows vividly the discomforts of old-time traveling.
They started from New York Monday before Christmas, 1819, and journeyed by boat
to Elizabeth-town, thence by stage to Trenton; thence by stage to Philadelphia,
stopping a day to visit Peale's Museum, West's picture and the Academy of Fine
Arts. Thence they took boat down the Delaware to New Castle; thence traveled by
stage to Frenchtown, where they again took a steamer, and after a moonlight
trip reached Baltimore by sunrise on Thursday. There they had time to visit the
Roman Catholic Cathedral and other places. After breakfast they boarded the
steamer, United States, for Norfolk, starting at 9 o'clock. They had a
delightful trip, the day being pleasant. One of their traveling companions

was Dr. Simmons J. Baker, whom they describe as a man of
liberal education, very lively and intelligent in his conversation--a
Trustee of the University. "He sets a higher value on the
amor patriae than any man
I've ever known." They reached Norfolk at 1 o'clock on Friday. As the
stage was waiting they missed their dinner and speeded to the head of Dismal
Swamp, eleven miles. Here they entered a canal boat 20 feet in length. "
'Twas sunset of a rainy Christmas eve when we entered this boat and were drawn
along for 22 miles at the rate of four miles an hour." It was suggested
that as Christmas was a holiday for slaves and many runaways were living in the
swamp, firearms might be needed; so the gentlemen prepared their pistols, three
in number for possible robbers. The five locks and three bridges impeded their
progress so that they did not get through the swamp until 10 o'clock at night.
The driver of the stage for passengers had been restive and gone off, so a
one-horse gig and a one-horse cart for baggage were procured, and they made
their way to a country tavern not far off, where they spent the night, sending
to Elizabeth City for the stage to return for them. They ate breakfast in that
town and dined in Edenton Saturday afternoon. As the steamboat for Plymouth was
gone, in an open boat rowed by four men, over a rough sea, one of the
passengers bailing out the water which poured through the gaping seams, the
travelers in seven hours reached Plymouth. Here their first care was to unpack
their trunks and dry their soaked clothes. They then proceeded by stage by way
of Williamston and Tarboro to Raleigh, only to find that the stage to Chapel
Hill had departed. They hired a special conveyance, whose driver was suspected
of being a murderer, and the Professor thought it wise to hint that he was
provided with firearms. After a day's ride through a country almost uninhabited
the bride reached her new home December 29th, and her husband preached his
first sermon on the following Sunday in the old Chapel or Person Hall.

For a while they boarded with Prof. Olmsted at the house built for the
President, that nearest to the University buildings on the west, paying
$288 a year for board, lodging and washing. Their host kept four
servants besides the washerwoman.

He had a wife and a
son and, although a Connecticut man, paid $350 for a slave girl as a
nurse to the youngster. Their household expenses were $1,000 a year.

Mrs. Mitchell expressed much admiration for the Doctor and Mrs.
Caldwell. She spoke of the lady as being sociable and friendly. They gave a
dinner party in honor of the newcomers, a handsome dinner, handsomely served.
The bride had the honor of drinking the first glass of wine with Dr. Caldwell,
the sentiment being, "To Absent Friends." Womanlike she tells her
mother of what a Carolina dinner consisted: "Roast turkey with duck,
roast beef and broiled, broiled chicken, Irish and sweet potatoes, turnips,
rice, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, stewed apples, boiled pudding, baked potato
pudding, damson tarts, current tarts, apple pies and whips."

She was pleased with her new surroundings, notwithstanding the two
hundred curious eyes of the students when she was in the Chapel. She praises
particularly the fine apples and abundance of them. Thirty years afterwards the
neighborhood was equally distinguished for peaches. The orchards have been
allowed to go to decay. She whiles away the hours when her husband is absent,
by study, reciting to him at night. She asks her mother to send her some fine
thread, worsted yarn and some needles, the package to be forwarded to New York
in order to come in the next box of books. Fine materials for ladies work were
not procurable at Chapel Hill in those days. It was not long before Dr. Olmsted
bought himself a residence and the young couple started housekeeping in the
home he vacated, which they occupied for thirty-seven years.

At the same session the Committee on Buildings were authorized to
erect a building embracing recitation rooms whenever the funds would allow.

The vision of golden streams to flow from the escheated warrants of
Tennessee emboldened the Trustees in 1818, with only one dissenting voice, to
add the Professorship of Rhetoric and Logic and adjunct Professorship of Moral
Philosophy. Rev. Shepard Kosciusko Kollock was chosen to fill the chair of
Rhetoric and began at the same term with Olmsted, the fall term of 1819. His
salary was $1,240. The President held the Chair

of Moral Philosophy and Metaphysics. The Tutors were King and Simon Jordan. The
number of students during the year was 118.

Dr. Kollock was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, June 25, 1795. His
father, Shepard Kollock, was an officer in the Revolutionary Army, and hence
delighted to honor the Polish patriot. The son graduated with high honors at
Princeton at the age of sixteen. He began the study of Theology under his
brother-in-law, Rev. John McDowell, D.D., and finished his course under his
brother, Rev. Henry Kollock, D.D., whose ministerial work was at Savannah,
Georgia. His first charge after ordination was that of the Presbyterian church
at Oxford, North Carolina, marrying during his first year, 1818, Miss Sarah
Blount Littlejohn, daughter of Thomas Blount Littlejohn. Coming to the
University in 1819, he remained until 1825, when he accepted a call to the
Presbyterian church of Norfolk, Virginia, where he remained about ten years. He
then removed to New Jersey, and was for three years the successful agent of the
Board of Missions, after which he was pastor successively in Burlington and
Greenwich, both in New Jersey. In 1860 his health failed and he accepted light
work in connection with a charitable institution in Philadelphia. He died April
7, 1865.

Dr. Kollock married a second time--Miss Sarah Harris, of Norfolk.
Several children and more grandchildren of this marriage survive. A child,
Sarah, of the first marriage, was one of the highly esteemed principals of the
excellent School for Females of the Misses Nash and Miss Kollock. The Misses
Nash are daughters of a sister of Professor Kollock, wife of Chief Justice
Frederick Nash.

The election of Prof. Kollock caused an outcry against President
Caldwell for filling the Faculty with Presbyterian preachers. This he
emphatically denied in a letter to Treasurer Haywood, calling attention to the
fact that Prof. Hooper was an Episcopalian, and making the rather odd statement
that he would have been nominated to the Chair of Rhetoric and Logic if he had
been ordained as a preacher and could have rendered to him as much relief in
the pulpit as Mr. Kollock. Moreover,

he contended that
the best man should be selected regardless of denominational bias. It should be
noticed too that Olmsted, howbeit a Presbyterian, although he studied Theology,
was not licensed to preach. A letter from Treasurer Haywood to Judge Murphey of
the date of April 26, 1819, shows that the President was so chagrined at the
postponement by the Board of his nomination, that he hinted at accepting a
Professorship in the South Carolina College. It is stated that the hesitation
arose from the fear that this placing the religious instruction in the charge
of two Presbyterian ministers might be against the Constitution, as exalting
one denomination over the others. It is notable that Treasurer Haywood stated
that he and Colonel Wm. Polk, adherents of the Protestant Episcopal church,
were of the opinion that it was imprudent to elect one of their own faith, for
fear of giving offence to other denominations. As Professor Hooper was then an
Episcopalian, one other of the same faith would have been a too heavy weight to
be carried by the struggling institution. This seems to prove that the
prejudice from the old hostility to the Church of England, allied with the
odious Colonial government, still lingered among our people. After Kollock's
election the Faculty stood, Caldwell, Mitchell, Olmsted, Kollock, four to one
Episcopalian, tottering towards the Baptists. As the
Tutors changed almost yearly, I have not inquired into their religious
proclivities.

THE ENLARGED CURRICULUM.

The scheme of studies was of course considerably changed by the
addition of the two new Professorships. For admission into the Freshman class
the following was prescribed:

It is observable that in the catalogue Conics is spelled Conicks, and
means of course Analytical Geometry. Fluxions is now called Calculus; Natural
Philosophy is called Physics; Classics (spelled Classicks), meant the writings
of great English authors, principally of Queen Anne's time.

For the Senior Class, then called Senior
Sophisters--

No Latin, Greek or Pure Mathematics.

In Natural Science--Chemistry; Mineralogy; Geology; Philosophy of
Natural History.

In Applied Mathematics--Natural Philosophy; Progress of the
Mathematical and Physical Sciences; Astronomy; Chronology.

In Philosophy--Moral Philosophy; Progress of Metaphysical,
Ethical and Political Philosophy; Metaphysics.

The students had no laboratory work, but the Professor performed
experiments in Chemistry and Physics in the presence of the class. Much
attention was paid to composition and declamation, which was supplemented by
similar work, enforced by fines, in the two literary societies. The Alumni of
the University were therefore easily among the leaders in political life, and
had a good start in the professions of law and theology.

JUDGE MURPHEY'S PLAN.

It is interesting to compare the foregoing scheme of studies with the
plan of Judge Archibald Murphey, who distinguished himself about this time by a
very able report on Public Education, and was a man of large experience at the
bar, on the bench, and in the General Assembly, and had professional experience
in the University. He moved for a committee to report "a revised plan of
Education," embodying "changes suited to the present improved state
of science and general knowledge;" also to report a plan of new
buildings. The following is the scheme, recommended but not adopted. It is
analogous to our modern system of "Schools" or
"Colleges," the term classes, however, being used:

2. Class of Mathematics.--Pure
Mathematics up to Fluxions; Mensuration up to Astronomy; Geography.

3. Physical Sciences.--Embracing
Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology, Philosophy of Natural History; History of the
Progress of Mathematics and Physical Sciences.

4. Class of the Moral and Political Sciences,
embracing Philosophy of the Human Mind; Ethics and Practical Morality; Elements
of Theology; History of the Progress of Ethical and Moral Sciences; Political
Philosophy by Paley; Constitution of the United States by Publius; Political
Economy by Genith.

It is very notable that the distinguished Judge did not include in his
programme the study of the great sciences, Electricity or Magnetism; nor is
there mention of Mechanics, Biology and similar branches now so much
cultivated.

PRESIDENT POLK'S CLASS.

The class of 1818 numbered 14.

The highest honor was conferred on James Knox Polk, afterwards
President of the United States, having previously passed through the offices of
Governor of Tennessee and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The second honor was won by William Mercer Green, afterwards a
Professor in our University, Bishop of Mississippi and Chancellor of the
University of the South, Doctor of Divinity and of Laws. The third honor
devolved on Robert Hall Morrison, afterwards a Doctor of Divinity in the
Presbyterian church and President of Davidson College. The fourth honor fell to
Hamilton C. Jones, a prominent editor and lawyer of Salisbury and Reporter of
the Supreme Court. Besides these, were Hugh Waddell, able lawyer and President
of the State Senate, Edward Jones Mallett, Paymaster-General U. S. A. and
Consul-General to Italy, and William Dunn Moseley, Speaker of the State Senate
and Governor of Florida. The Faculty reported that the class was especially
approved on account of the regular, moral and exemplary deportment of its
members. Polk never missed a duty while in the institution.

Associated with these, but not remaining to take degrees, were George
C. Dromgoole, Speaker of the Virginia Senate and Representative in Congress, a
noted stump speaker.

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was granted to Rev. John McDowell, of
Virginia, and that of Master of Arts to Thomas Pollock Devereux, of North
Carolina. Dr. McDowell was of New Jersey, for fifty years Trustee of Princeton
College, and was efficient as agent in collecting funds for its advancement.
Mr. Devereux, a descendant of Jonathan Edwards, was a Trustee of the University
of North Carolina, and Reporter of the Supreme Court.

For the Commencement of 1819 the representatives from the Dialectic
Society were Wm. Hill Jordan, of Bertie, Thomas H. Wright, of Wilmington, and
Lucius C. Polk, of Raleigh, afterwards of Tennessee. On the part of the
Philanthropic Society were Wm. H. Hardin, of Rockingham, afterwards of
Fayetteville, Tucker Carrington, of Virginia, and Matthias B. D.

Palmer, of Northampton County. The Debaters were Thomas
B. Slade and Anderson W. Mitchell. The question was "Ought foreigners to
be admitted to public offices in the United States?" Three men attained
the first distinction, being declared equal. They were Walker Anderson, Clement
Carrington Read and Wm. Henry Haywood. Anderson had the Latin Salutatory, Read
the English Salutatory, and Haywood the Valedictory.

Besides the above, Thomas B. Slade, John M. Starke and Paul A.
Haralson were appointed by the Faculty to speak a humorous dialogue.

The success in after-life of the honored men corresponded to their
college careers. Anderson, who was slightly superior to Haywood was a Professor
in the University and Chief Justice of Florida. Haywood was a leader of the bar
and United States Senator. Read was a banker of very high standing. Of the
others, Simon P. Jordan was a Tutor in this institution and then a physician;
James Turner Morehead, a sound lawyer and member of Congress.

Contemporaries, not graduating, were John Lancaster Bailey, of the
Convention of 1835, and Judge of the Superior Courts; W. F. Leak, Presidential
Elector and member of the Conventions of 1835 and 1861. Thomas N. Mann,
heretofore mentioned; Alfred M. Slade, Consul to Buenos Ayres; and Mason L.
Wiggins, State Senator. Rev. Wm. McPheeters, who had gained fame as a preacher
and head of the Raleigh Academy, a Trustee of the University, was made Doctor
of Divinity.

UNIVERSITY LIFE, 1813-'20--LETTERS OF STUDENTS.

I am fortunately able to give information of interest with respect to
this decade of University history, derived from letters by students. Bryan
Grimes writes to his mother in January and April, 1813, regretting his
inability to visit her during the approaching vacation because of the
impossibility of hiring a horse. He requests one or two waistcoats to be sent
him at the next session. He is inconvenienced by having only three pair of
summer stockings, because the washerwoman brings in clothes weekly and,
therefore, he must every alternate week wear a pair for seven days without
change. All things seem

to proceed in harmony in
college. The students are exerting themselves for examinations, having no time
for sport. He reminds his mother that she had promised to write every month,
and he begs her to continue this frequency. He asks her to excuse his
penmanship because he has no knife wherewith to mend his bad pen.

He testifies that he was received with great politeness, which
indicates that the evil practice of hazing did not then afflict the
institution. Before applying for admission into the Junior class he spent
several days in assiduously reviewing Arithmetic, his passing on the Freshman
and Sophomore studies not dispensing with this branch. Mr. Grimes proved to be
a good student, but did not remain to graduate. He was in after-life a very
influential and wealthy planter--a most worthy citizen.

In October, 1816, Peter C. Picot gives the history of a fight in which
two students were involved. James R. Chalmers and Thomas G. Coleman were among
those suspended for the Shepard riot. They concluded to sojourn at Hillsboro. A
citizen of that town volunteered to reflect severely on the conduct of the
students, for which Chalmers kicked him out of doors. In the progress of the
fight Coleman, whose nickname was Cub, was severely choked. The offenders were
about to be consigned to prison when Judge Thomas Ruffin, a Trustee of the
University, appeared and settled the whole matter by a compromise. The
adversary of Chalmers declined to prosecute him, on condition that the student,
Coleman, should let the choker go free, a curious example of the doctrine of
set-off.

Picot gives a pathetic story of Chapel Hill life. "The beautiful
and accomplished Miss P.'s father is no more. Though the world will not grieve,
nor has society to lament, for he was to the former a burden and to the latter
a disgrace, yet a helpless girl, in the dawn of youth, has to mourn a disgraced
father, for he died in jail and laid there some time, until they sent to the
Governor to obtain leave to take him out. Oh! if you could have heard her
shrieks and witnessed her lamentations it would have pierced your heart and
rent your soul. But she has got pacified, and I had the inexpressible pleasure
of accompanying her last Thursday evening to preaching." The subsequent
history

Martin W. B. Armstrong writes on January 31, 1818, for money on
account of unexpected expenses. He was one of a committee selected to choose
toasts for a dinner to be given on the "birthday of our political
father," and was bound therefore to subscribe for the dinner.
"According to custom the Committee had to treat those from whom they
received the distinction." He was also with five others chosen as a
manager of the ball to be given to the graduates at Commencement. For this
honor he was "again forced to be at the expense of making college
drunk." He estimates the cost at two or three dollars. He regrets the
expense for suitable clothes, which according to an account sent his father
cost $56. He presses for more clothing for daily use. Cambric shirts are
soon gone when they become crazy and old, and he requests that his mother will
make him others. His cassimere pantaloons are worn through on the seat and are
thin on the knees, and his only other pair requires washing after one week's
wearing. "It will not be improper," he adds, "to provide for
another supply."

Hamilton C. Jones wrote in the same year to Major Abraham Staples that
the business of the Dialectic Society had been conducted with order since the
repeal of the law compelling members to attend prayers, which had caused great
disturbance. He praises in the highest terms the President, Samuel T. Hauser,
of Stokes. The next question for debate was "Do we experience more
pleasure in contemplating the works of Nature or of Art?" Jones was to
advocate the claims of Nature, saying among other arguments "because no
painter nor no sculpturer can produce in the mind of man the exquisite
sensation produced in the mind of the lover from contemplating the fascinating
charms of his Dulcinea." He has many other arguments but this
preponderates. We must presume that his adversary contended stoutly that the
modern fine lady is in a large degree the work of Art and made some allusion to
the known fact that Jones was desperately in love with a fair one in the
village, whom he afterwards married. Miss Eliza Henderson.

As the notion was lodged in the public mind that Dr. Chapman failed as
a disciplinarian, the disorders of September, 1818,

must
have been of some consolation to his friends. They heard of three students,
after loading up with corn whiskey, tumultuously shouting on the streets of the
village, breaking into a kitchen, beating a negro, and insulting his owner and
family with loud vociferations. On the same day another threw stones at a
dwelling. On the same day, being God's holy day, two others were drunken and
noisy in the street. All but the stone-thrower were suspended for four months,
though they might have escaped as the stone-hurler did by submitting to public
admonition in the Chapel. At the time of these rowdy occurrences S. H. was
admonished for being deficient in scholarship, often absent from his room and
strongly suspected of participation in frequent explosions of gunpowder, and A.
W. "after repeated warnings was dismissed for negligence of
studies."

We learn from a letter of James R. Chalmers, written in 1818 to Alfred
M. Slade, that besides being suspended for participation in the street riots,
one J. B. was charged with assisting in transporting to the third story of the
South Building a large stone or other hard substance, with the intent to injure
said building. President Caldwell swore out a warrant against him and he was
keeping in hiding, attempting to collect evidence of his innocence. Slade was
urged to write a letter avowing J. B.'s guiltlessness that "he may clear
himself in the eyes of the Faculty, the Trustees and the world."

In the next month a too lively Virginian was charged with the
following offences:

1st. Torturing animals with spirits of turpentine. Doubtless this was
the primeval joke of attaching rags saturated with the flaming fluid to the
tail of an innocent canine, not with Sampson's motive of revenge on the
hereditary enemies of his country, but for cruel delight over the antics of a
frightened and tortured beast.

2d. With lying.

3d. With slandering the Faculty.

4th. With threatening physical violence to a member of the
Faculty.

5th. With writing scurrilous and abusive stuff on the Chapel walls
about the same.

The Faculty gravely came to the conclusion that the offender was
"not of a proper disposition to be an orderly student," and sent
him home.

Three months afterwards, on the glorious 22d of February, Walker
Anderson delivered an oration, after which a dinner was given in honor of the
stately and dignified George Washington, with whom temperance and decorum were
life-long habits. The chronicle says that many were intoxicated. Deadly
weapons, dirks and pistols were drawn. Tu. C. and Th. C. had a furious fight.
Tu. C. drew a dirk. A. I., a peace-maker, in parting them was stabbed in the
arm. M. H. used a pistol in a dangerous manner in the crowd and J. S. took it
from him.

There seems to have been no punishment of these offences other than
signing pledges. The students were called on to surrender their deadly weapons,
to be retained while they were members of the University. Six pistols and two
dirks were obtained.

The trials of the eventful year were not yet over. The whole
"establishment," as the University was often called, was convulsed
by a conflict between a student and a member of the Faculty. We have a vivid
description of it by Thomas B. Slade, in a letter to his brother. I condense
his story. The member of the Faculty was Tutor Simon Jordan, and the student
Wm. Anthony, of Virginia.

There was "a woman in it." "Both escorted Miss Betsy
Puckett one Sunday to Mount Carmel, four miles from town, on the road to
Pittsboro. Anthony alleged that Jordan insulted him repeatedly on the journey.
Vowing revenge he tendered his resignation as a student, which the Faculty
declined to accept. Claiming to be of age, and therefore that he had the right
to withdraw, he armed himself with three pistols, a dirk and a club, and
attacked Jordan, who was walking with R. R. King, the other Tutor. A crowd
collecting, they were separated without damage. Anthony was summoned before the
Faculty, where it was proved that he had called the President a liar. He again
afterwards armed as before, attacked Jordan, who had a small walking cane. A
few blows with the sticks were exchanged, when Jordan, finding his weapon too
light in comparison

with his adversary's, dropped it and
caught Anthony in such manner as to render his club useless." I give the
conclusion in the words of Slade, who was a witness, as they throw light on the
frame of mind of the students generally. "They now commenced a fight
which created much interest among the students, for the 'Dis' were
warm for Simon Jordan, Anthony being a member of the 'Phi' Society.
It was held with equal success by both parties for a few moments, when King
called upon me, as I was nearest, to part them. With his assistance we parted
them. I leaped for joy on its termination, for the victory, as far as the fight
was carried, was given to Simon, both by his enemies and friends. Of the two
combatants Anthony is much the larger, but Simon much the more active."
Anthony still vowed revenge, but a warrant was sworn out for his arrest and he
deemed it prudent to leave the county.

About the same time James R. Chalmers, heretofore mentioned, gave a
student who had left the University and returned to attend to some business, a
most unmerciful whipping. The cause of the exasperation of the castigator is
unknown.

We have several letters written by Thomas B. Slade while at the
University. He tells of a marriage between Richard Thompson and Miss Nancy
King, of the engagement between Miss Eliza Henderson and Hamilton C. Jones, of
the 22d of February speech by Walker Anderson, which was very much admired;
that Anderson and William H. Haywood are struggling hard for the Latin speech,
and that it is difficult to say who will get it.

Afterwards, Slade gives a description of some of the students, which
shows that he had a good judgment of character. Wm. H. Haywood, fully sustains
the high reputation he had at the Raleigh Academy, as a young man of the first
talents. Clement Read is also struggling for the Latin Salutatory. In the
Junior class Owen Holmes and Martin Armstrong strive with him, but he has left
them far behind, and their envy has led to disputes, which have injured the
Dialectic Society. Slade and Anderson live together at the President's house
(since burnt) as lovingly as brothers, which is "unusual between persons
of different societies."

James R. Chalmers is the same independent young man--is a warm
friend and advocate of Haywood, "and consequently ranks high." He
has become more studious in his habits. He is thought to be of all his
class-mates the most brilliant. "His compositions are excellent, display
all the fire of imagination and originality of genius."

John M. Starke, of South Carolina, since coming to the University has
had a continued struggle for life, but his health is greatly re-established.
His mind and vivacity are unimpaired. In conversation he excels.

James T. Morehead is the same blunt, plain old fellow, respected by
all and loves to hunt and fish as well as ever.

Ethelred Phillips has returned after his sickness and will join the
next Junior class. He is most assiduous and attentive. A book is his delight
and his talents are adequate to his application.

David Williams has a most noble genius. Nature has bestowed talents
lavishly upon him, but it is feared, for want of industry, they will lie
dormant.

David W. Stone is a fine young man and in mathematical talents is
equal to any in the class. He has concluded to graduate.

The subsequent careers of these youths fulfilled the promise of their
student life.

Besides those I have elsewhere mentioned, Martin W. B. Armstrong
became a physician of repute in Greensboro, New Salem and Salisbury. He was for
a short while acting Clerk of the Court of Stokes, and probably emigrated to
Tennessee, where his father had much land. He lost his diploma for striking
down Haywood with a club, in consequence of words spoken at a convivial
banquet. James R. Chalmers settled as a lawyer in Knoxville, Tennessee, and
reached the dignity of Attorney-General. James T. Morehead was a prominent
lawyer of Greensboro and a worthy member of Congress and of the State
Legislature. He was a brother of Governor Morehead. Ethelred Phillips, uncle of
Judge Fred Phillips, was a physician of fame in North Carolina and Florida. He
cured himself of pulmonary consumption by extreme care as to clothing and diet,
to the extent of changing clothing on the slightest change of temperature,
certainly every morning, noon and night throughout

the
year. David W. Stone was a son of Governor Stone, was first a lawyer and then
the esteemed President of the Branch of the Bank of Cape Fear at Raleigh.

In 1820 occurred a furious conflict between two students named Martin,
but of no kinship. Robert was from Granville, tall, orderly and high-spirited,
a grandson of Nathaniel Macon. The other was Henry Martin, of Stokes County,
strong and pugnacious, a son of Colonel James Martin, of the Revolution, by his
second wife, the mother of Hamilton C. Jones. Robert was a member of the
Philanthropic Society, and while the Society was in session Henry Martin made
his way into the attic room above its Hall, and in leaping over the rafters
fell through the ceiling. As he was a member of the rival society this was
deemed an intentional insult and was resented by Robert Martin. The quarrel
resulted in a fight, which came very near causing a pitched battle between the
members of the two societies. Governor Graham shortly before his death stated
that he witnessed the conflict. Henry, being the stouter, endeavored to close
with his antagonist, which Robert prevented by warding off and returning his
blows, slowly backing towards the well. By these tactics they fought from the
door of Gerrard Hall to the well before they were parted. According to the
Governor's recollection, Robert was not thrown, but there is a contrary
tradition among his relatives to the effect that the Dialectic champion jumped
on his prostrate breast, causing such internal injuries that he died soon after
his graduation in 1822. Dr. Hooper in his "Fifty Years Since"
sustains in part at least this tradition. He states that the Di "got his
antagonist down and beat him most dreadfully." My conclusion is that
there were two fights. President Caldwell thought best to prosecute the victor
before the Superior Court then in session at Hillsboro. Dr. Hooper was one of
the guard and tells the story of the proceedings: "It was a rainy night,
the prisoner purposely kept his horse in a walk, that we might not bring him
into town at night as a guarded criminal. So we rode up at breakfast time, like
a party of travelers to the hotel, where the Judge and prosecuting officer and
a crowd of people were standing. Our mittimus was examined, when lo and behold!
the Justice of the Peace

who issued it had left out of
the writ the initials of his office 'J. P.,' and without those
magic letters it was as harmless as a lion with his head cut off. So the whole
proceeding was quashed, the prisoner discharged, the expedition covered with
ridicule, and the escort went home pretty well sick of Sheriff's
business."

The feud did not, however, end here. The Di champion became incensed
at language reported as having been used by the Phi while at Hillsboro, and
seeking the latter in his room renewed the fight. We have no details of its
result. The Faculty dismissed the aggressor at once, and the wrathful feeling
among the students soon died down and gave place to other excitements.

About the same time four other students, convicted of
"quarreling and fighting in their rooms," were called up and made
to sign a pledge to keep the peace.

An epidemic of explosions of gunpowder prevailed about this time which
gave the Faculty great annoyance. In the language of the grave Secretary,
Joseph H. Saunders, there could be no object other than "to disturb
society in a very violent manner, except the additional one of sporting with
the injury done the order of the institution; it must ever be considered an
offence of much aggravation." The punishment was dismission or suspension
according to the previous record of the student. There was ingenuity expended
in securing loud explosives. In one case a hollow brass knob was covered over
with lead and filled with the powder. The noise made was pleasing to the ears
of the festive youths.

There is extant a contemporary printed letter from an unknown
traveler, who urged upon the students in the kindest terms more civil behavior
at public exhibitions. He deprecated "expressions of contempt towards a
decent stranger, who was entertaining them with delightful music."
"If a stranger enters their room he is treated with marked politeness.
Why not carry into public conduct the same character of genteel
breeding?" "Surely the bloom and gaiety of youth would receive
embellishment from gentleness, grace and dignity of behavior." He warns
them that their boisterous conduct is becoming an insult

to the officers of the University and even to the fair sex, and asks, "Is
the enjoyment of wit and pleasantry impossible without noise? Is it necessary
to be boisterous in order to be happy?" There is no record as to whether
this appeal had any effect in mitigating the evil sought to be remedied. It is
noticeable that a French traveler in England in the fifteenth century was
amazed to find that people seemed to be unable to express joy except by loud
shouting, bell ringing, explosions of gunpowder, and other "unharmonious
noises."

While most of the students dressed plainly, those who held the post of
Marshall and Ball Manager, and the Commencement speakers, had more costly
apparel. We have a bill for one suit of clothes. Black broadcloth coat, cost
$34; Cassimere pantaloons $14, and British florentine waistcoat
$8; Total, $56. The late Judge Battle remembered that the
University servant, a worthy negro, known as Brad, kept a pair of boots for
hire to students only. They were in special request for visits to the belles of
Raleigh, Hillsboro and Pittsboro, who were famous throughout the State for
physical and intellectual attractions.

At the Commencement of 1881 we had an eloquent and instructive address
by a class-mate of President Polk, an excellent specimen of the old school, an
octogenarian, Gen. Edward J. Mallett, of New York, lately called to his final
home. He was introduced as having received his diploma sixty-three years before
that day, and it was stated that for seventy years he had never taken a glass
of ardent spirits, and, therefore, that he had still the inestimable blessing
of mens sana in corpore
sano, and that other still greater blessing mens sibi conscia recti. In
his autobiography, printed only for his relatives, a copy being donated to our
Historical Society, we find an account of the ball given in compliment to his
class, when graduating. The following description of his dress is
interesting.

"The style of costume," said Gen. Mallett, "and even
the manners of the present generation are not, in my opinion, an improvement on
a half century ago. The managers would not then admit a gentleman into the
ball-room with boots, or even a frock coat; and to dance without gloves was
simply vulgar. At the Commencement Ball (when I graduated, 1818), my

coat was broadcloth, of sea-green color, high velvet
collar to match, swallow-tail, pockets outside with lapels, and large
silver-plated buttons; white satin damask vest, showing the edge of a blue
under-vest; a wide opening for bosom ruffles, and no shirt collar. The neck was
dressed with a layer of four or five three-cornered cravats, artistically laid
and surmounted with a cambric stock, pleated and buckled behind. My pantaloons
were white canton crape, lined with pink muslin, and showed a peach-blossom
tint. They were rather short in order to display flesh-colored silk stockings,
and this exposure was increased by very low cut pumps with shiny buckles. My
hair was very black, very long and queued. I should be taken for a lunatic or a
harlequin in such costume now."

In 1827 the Trustees prescribed a uniform of dark gray in summer and
blue in winter, but six months afterwards changed the winter color to a dark
gray, so that it is probable that our boys were the first in the State to wear
the dress which is so intimately associated in Southern minds with the
tenderness, pathos and heroism of the Lost Cause. A solemn ordinance was
adopted at the same time, which sounds strange in our ears, "The wearing
of boots by the students is positively prohibited." This law was passed
doubtless on account of the financial panic of 1825, but, like all sumptuary
laws, was regularly circumvented. The Seniors during the Commencement at which
they graduated were exempt from the prohibitory boot law by special exception
to the ordinance, and it was not long before ambitious Juniors, Sophomores and
Freshmen obtained the distinguished privilege.

In a letter from his father, Joel Battle, a student in 1798-99, to his
son, William, the late Judge Battle, is some homely advice of value at this
day. He cautions his son against jumping into cold water when hot. "I
caught dysentery when at Chapel Hill by that." He sends 2 3-4 yards of
broadcloth for a coat and vest for his son's Commencement suit. As the Judge
was a small man that was doubtless sufficient. On his graduation a horse and
gig would be sent for him. The driver will lead an extra horse for him to ride
home, from which it appears that the gig had only one seat.

Information is given of the financial condition of the farmers of
Edgecombe in February, 1820. The writer had sold pork in Virginia at $6
per hundred--one-half cash, the other half in four months. He started 152
hogs in the drove and got 143 to market. The other nine all returned home
except one or two. Those sold averaged 149 1-2 pounds, so that the drove
brought nearly $1,300. There was great distress for money in the county.
Thirty negroes had been recently sold in Tarboro for debt. There were Sheriff's
sales almost every day or two. Wm. Ross bought a woman at $581; A. J.
Thorp, at $300. These doubtless have been "on account of those
dangerous and fatal rocks, imprudence and extravagance."

These extracts are given because "hard times" were a
serious obstacle in the path of the University then, and at other periods. Six
cents a pound--half on credit--for hogs driven over 100 miles, shows
that money was hard to get.

THE VILLAGE OF CHAPEL HILL.

The government of the village of Chapel Hill was primitive. All white
males between 21 and 50 years of age were distributed into classes and in turn
patrolled the streets at night. Slaves were liable to a whipping of ten lashes,
or a fine of one dollar, for being absent from home without a written permit
from the owner. Nor could a slave hire his own time.

Shooting firearms in the village "in sport, wantonness or
licentiousness" was forbidden under a penalty of one dollar. But firing
on public occasions or musters was not only not prohibited but encouraged. Two
dollars was the penalty for working on Sundays in one's ordinary avocation,
unless in case of necessity or mercy. Nor, with like exception, could any
person buy or sell any article under penalty of five dollars, doubled in case
of sales by merchants.

The streets were to be worked by male white persons between 18 and 45,
and black males between 16 and 50. Fines for whites were inflicted for
absences. Whipping for slaves was the rule, but owners could save them from
punishment by paying a fine. The Commissioners were to pay one dollar for
absence from meetings without excuse.

We are fortunate in having a description of the village in a letter
from Wm. D. Moseley, written in 1853. At the beginning of 1818 Dr. Caldwell had
almost as meagre a Faculty as he commanded when he was presiding Professor in
1797. Wm. Hooper, Professor of Ancient Languages, was on a health tour in the
South. Dr. Mitchell, Professor of Mathematics, did not arrive for two months
after the session opened. There were 92 students, and the President had his
hands full, with his two Tutors, in charge of so many unruly boys. The
following is the substance of Moseley's description of the village:

There was one street, running east and west, called Franklin or Main
street. The Raleigh and Hillsboro road crossed this, that part to the south
being Raleigh, that to the north being Hillsboro street. East of Raleigh street
were two dwellings fronting on Franklin, that at the corner, the residence of
President Caldwell and wife. The other, east of it, was the property of Prof.
Wm. Hooper.

On the north side of Franklin and east of Hillsboro street was the
dwelling of Mrs. Puckett, widow of the late John Puckett, once Postmaster. This
was the lot afterwards bought by Professor Olmstead and by him sold to the
University. Between the part of the campus fronting on Franklin street and
Raleigh street there were only two residences, Hilliard's Hotel, afterwards the
Eagle, and now Chapel Hill Hotel, and next to Raleigh street the dwelling of
Tom Taylor, a merchant, afterwards sold to the University for Tennessee land.
It is now occupied by Dr. Eben Alexander. The Episcopal church was not built
until long afterwards.

In front of the campus, including the grounds where are now the
Presbyterian church and the stores of R. S. McRae and H. H. Patterson, was
woodland, owned by the University. Between that and Hillsboro street were only
two buildings. One, about half way, was a store belonging to Tom Taylor, and
the other, at the corner of Hillsboro and Franklin Streets, the home of Wm.
Pitt, now belonging to the heirs of Henry C. Thompson.

Columbia street is perpendicular to Franklin in the western part of
the village. Between that and the part of the campus

fronting on Franklin were two residences only. That adjoining the campus, now
Central Hotel, was the residence of James Hogg, father of the eminent lawyer,
Gavin Hogg. Next to Columbia street lived the widow Mitchell, who dispensed
table board.

Opposite James Hogg's was Major Pleasant Henderson's, father of the
attractive Miss Eliza. West of this about 150 yards was the store of Mr. Trice,
and further still, at the corner the blacksmith shop of Christopher or Kit
Barbee.

At the southwest angle of Columbia and Franklin streets was the famous
boarding house of Mrs. Elizabeth or Betsy Nunn, and south of that was the only
other building on Columbia, that of Wm. Barbee, long the Steward of the
University.

At the junction of Cameron Avenue and Pittsboro streets was the
residence of Mrs. Pannell, whose fair daughter captivated the heart of Tutor,
afterwards Bishop James H. Otey, and became his wife. Opposite Mrs. Pannill's
on Cameron Avenue was Mr. Watson's, the father of Mayor John H. Watson and Mr.
Jones Watson, merchant and lawyer, long esteemed citizens of Chapel Hill. The
father came near being a martyr of the University. He was a carpenter, working
on a third-story scaffold of the South Building, when he stumbled and was
precipitated over the edge of the scaffold. A friendly nail caught the seat of
his tow breeches, of tough flaxen fibre, and held him suspended over the deep
abyss, in a plight pitiable but safe.

There was no other house on Cameron Avenue to the westward. All was
forest, wherein were numerous chinquapin bushes. Adjoining the campus was the
President's house, then occupied by the new Professor of Mathematics,
afterwards of Chemistry, Dr. Mitchell.

Governor Moseley overlooked the residence of the Principal of the
Grammar School, Rev. Abner W. Clopton, east of the campus, now the Battle
residence. The grove in front of it was then thick woods.

The only college buildings were the East, the South and Person Hall,
or the "Old Chapel," now, largely increased in size, devoted to the
use of the Department of Medicine.

of the
campus, now Brickyard Spring, and the Twin Sisters, north of the village, below
which the waters were conducted through a gutter, having a fall of about ten
feet, and making an excellent open air-down-pouring bath. The Davie Poplar was
even then, eighty years ago, called the Old Poplar.

In his distant home, said Moseley, living the life of a hermit, worn
out with old age, his six children all grown but one, he rejoiced over the
successes of the University, "much of it due to Swain's great abilities
and untiring energy." He felt glad that the last vote he gave as Trustee
was for him as President.

The records show where the students of 1819 had their dormitories. I
give the list, that it may be compared with Moseley's description of the
village:

In the East Building roomed

30 students.

In the South Building roomed

51 students.

At Major Henderson's roomed

7 students.

At President Caldwell's roomed

2 students.

At Mrs. Pannell's roomed

3 students.

At Mrs. Burton's roomed

2 students.

At Mrs. Craig's roomed

2 students.

At Mr. Thompson's roomed

2 students.

At Mr. Moring's roomed

1 students.

At. Mr. Kittrell's roomed

1 students.

At. Mr. Barbee's roomed

1 students.

At Mr. Pitt's roomed

1 students.

At Mrs. Mitchell's roomed

4 students.

At Mr. Strain's roomed

1 students.

At Mrs. Nunn's roomed

1 students.

109

It should be noted that the Mrs. Mitchell in this list was not the
wife of the Professor. As might be expected, Governor Moseley omitted some of
the inhabitants, but very few. Certainly Mrs. Craig and Mr. Kittrell lived out
of the village--perhaps others. Mrs. Burton occupied Steward Hall. She
took the house with the burden that the ball might be conducted in the
dining-room, free of charge. I do not know where were the residences of Mr.
Thompson, Mr. Moring and Mr. Strain. Mrs. Burton was the young widow of a
citizen of the village, who had died the year before.

It was at this period, 1819, that the management of Steward's Hall as
an adjunct of the University was discontinued and the students allowed to get
their table board where they pleased. As long as the manager was an employee of
the institution and especially, as in the early days, compulsory eating at his
table was the rule, grumbling was the staple conversation and rowdyism often
prevalent. The village increasing in population, Steward Hall was rented out on
condition that the tenant, Mrs. Burton, should supply food to student
applicants at not exceeding $9 per month for the first year and
$10 afterwards. This plan was continued about twenty years longer, the
compulsory feature not being renewed.

This "Steward's Hall" was a two-story wooden building
fronting west, painted white, in the middle of what is now Cameron Avenue, and
exactly north of the Carr Building. It was there that most of the students for
many years boarded at Commons, paying for the first year, 1795, $30, or
$3 per month; for the next four years $40 per year, or $4
per month; in 1800 rising to $57 per year; in 1805 to $60; in
1814, under the inflated war prices, to $66.50; in 1818 to $95;
in 1839 to $76, when the system was abandoned. It was in this building
that the "balls" of the old days were given, at which, tradition
has it, venerable Trustees and Faculty, together with their pupils, with hair
powdered and plaited into "pig-tails," and legs encased in tight
stockings and knees resplendent with buckles, mingled in the dance with the
beauteous damsels of the day.

Judge Battle, who graduated in 1820, boarded, as did James K. Polk and
others, at the house of Benjamin Yeargin near the creek in Tenney's plantation,
about a mile from the University buildings, at the foot of a long, steep
hill.

Governor Moseley stated that Polk and he were the first who studied
Conic Sections. They occupied the same room, that at the southwest corner third
story of the South Building, soon afterwards to shelter another excellent
student, William A. Graham. The study was regarded by most students as
extremely difficult.

CONDUCT OF STUDENTS.

Most of the misconduct at this period consisted of fighting and
annoyances to the Faculty. The war fever was partly the

cause of the former. The familiar songs were all boastful of the deeds of Perry
and McDonough, Decatur and Hull, and of General Jackson. But the war spirit was
stimulated to action partly by use of intoxicating liquors so common that the
Faculty hardly censured it except when drunkenness resulted; even then often
not cutting the offender off from the institution. But this was not the sole
cause. There was evidently a fashion to resort to bodily injury for fancied
insults. It is noticeable that it was not considered derogatory to one's
reputation to knock his antagonist down with a club, without warning. T. D.
Donoho, afterwards a lawyer of repute, wrote to his friend Armstrong, who had
felled W. H. Haywood in this manner, that all his friends sustained him as
having acted properly.

Another class of offences was impertinent and offensive speeches and
conduct towards the Tutors. Most of this arose from irritation at being ordered
by men, little, if any, older than themselves, to repair to their rooms, when
found visiting a friend after 8 o'clock at night. A son of Chief Justice
Henderson, usually a polite and good-natured youth, stoutly insisted that the
officer had no right to "order him about," and submitted to being
sent home, "rather than surrender his rights as a freeman." Others,
however, while obeying the officer's commands secretly vented their spite by
exploding gunpowder at his door, throwing stones through his windows, shouting
abusive words from a distance in the darkness, and other like amenities. One
Tutor became so obnoxious by his tactless severity that it became necessary to
fortify his window-panes with wooden shutters.

One of the Secretaries, Tutor Andrews, has left on record as evidence
in a case on trial the dialogue between the Tutor and the student-offender,
whom he found visiting a friend. It is worth quoting as showing the actual
working of a hard law.

Mr. H. was called before the Faculty and was asked "on what
footing he proposed to place himself in regard to this transaction?" On
his replying that he ought to have obeyed the Tutor, and regretted that he had
not, and that his purpose was to obey the laws of the college, he was
acquitted.

It is evident from the Faculty records that, while there was vigilance
in detecting offenders and strictness in pronouncing sentence, the law-givers
were very placable provided the offender acknowledged his fault, approved the
law broken as reasonable, and gave a written promise to obey all the laws in
the future. But there was sure punishment if there was refusal to do either of
these. There is good reason to believe that many students considered the
promises as not binding because they were in the nature of duress. Falsehood
was not considered as heinous as at present. There are numerous cases of
students answering for one another at Prayers, and the only punishment was a
reprimand. There was a striking case of a Senior positively assuring the
Faculty that another, under probation, could not possibly have gone to
Pittsboro, become intoxicated there and have done other wrongs, because to his
knowledge he had never left Chapel Hill. A Professor visited Pittsboro and
found that all this was false. In his defence the false witness avowed that he
would not have lied for himself. His punishment was holding back his diploma
for a year. Card-playing, even for amusement, was considered a high crime. The
players, as well as bystanders, whether occupiers of the room where the game
was carried on, or visitors, were sternly dealt with. To escape dismission they
were compelled to admit that it was wrong to play, that they regretted having
played, and would refrain in the future, and moreover that they would never
countenance a game by their presence, nor allow it in their rooms. Where four
students, after religious service on Sunday, were whiling away the interval
before dinner with

a short hand, they were dismissed or
suspended according to their previous bad or good conduct.

Another trouble the Faculty had was in regard to horse-racing. There
was a track near the Hill, a few hundred yards west of the railroad station.
The races were inaugurated largely by liquor sellers and gamblers, and were
frequented by many drunken and disorderly persons. The students were forbidden
to attend, but some went disguised and undetected. Those caught were suspended
from the institution. One enterprising Tennesseean, orderly and studious,
stationed himself where he could see the horses run, while he did not approach
the shouting, betting, riotous crowd. Was he guilty? The verdict of the Faculty
brings out so clearly the stately verbiage considered "good form"
in that day that I quote it: "In the disposition which the Faculty feel
to act on the side of forbearance, where the circumstances are susceptible of a
different construction in the mind of the offending person, it was resolved
that the case of the said W. L. be exempted from any other consequence in the
present instance than a warning given to beware of acting in such a manner in
regard to the rules of the college as bears the appearance of practicing
evasion."

As showing the leniency of the sentences, I give this case which
occurred in 1823: J. E. was convicted, 1st., of frequent absences from
recitation without excuse; 2nd., intoxication; 3d., of being a leader in a
great noise and tumult in a public passage; 4th., fastening up the door of a
Tutor's room; 5th, of boisterous and profane swearing, "aggravating this
offence by such a manner and by such circumstances as announced it to be his
intention that the oaths should be proclaimed in the ears of a member of the
Faculty"; 6th., of attending disguised in borrowed garments at a
horse-race contrary to the express orders of the Faculty; finally, of
"habitual insubordination and licentiousness of conduct." He was
suspended for only four months. In another instance W. H. was discovered
intoxicated and very noisy. He was suspended for two months.

T. P. was with a noisy assembly at one of the doors. It was the day
before the 22d of February and exercises had been suspended. A Tutor ordered
him to leave the company. He obeyed, but joined another crowd, and was ordered
to leave

that. He refused, alleging that he was in his
legal rights. He was required to acknowledge that he had done wrong and would
in the future obey the laws. The sentence was "until said T. P. shall
make the concessions stated he shall be dismissed."

A. F. rose to declaim his piece before the Faculty. Whether from
stage-fright or idleness he could pronounce only one or two lines. Being told
that he must perform the duty on the next evening he avowed his determination
never to do so. He was dismissed. After a week's cogitation he changed his mind
and was required to perform the duty, express regret for disobedience and
promise to obey the laws.

W. E. N., intending to leave the institution, invited a number of
students to a drinking party at his room. A number assembled. Four were found
playing cards. They were arraigned for this, not a word being said about the
drinking. They pleaded that the students always played during examination week.
This did not avail them and they were required to sign a pledge, asserting that
"the habit of card-playing tends to create a dangerous attachment to that
employment, and eventually to lead to the fatal practice of gaming," that
they sincerely regretted having played, because it is against the University
laws, and that they pledged themselves not to play again and not to allow
others to do so in their rooms. One of the number refused to sign and was
dismissed. He afterwards changed his mind and was re-admitted on signing the
paper; and another, acknowledging that he did wrong in declining to sign when
the others did, was pardoned.

W. H., the feast-giver, applied for leave to be absent at
Commencement, but the Faculty refused consent, and he went home without it. For
this and for the above-said feast he was dismissed. The context shows that the
chief offence was the absence without leave.

J. R. and J. J. R. were charged with making a disturbance at Prayers.
They refused to express disapprobation of such tumultuous proceedings or to
give assurance that they would refrain hereafter. They were dismissed. It
appears that the disturbance was an attempt to prevent the reading of a minute

of the Faculty. What this offensive minute was is not
recorded, but, as a student, J. F., had been dismissed two days before for
writing indecent words on the walls, and it was customary to announce such
sentences from the rostrum at the time of Prayers, it is likely that the
friends of the dismissed man were manifesting their sympathy with him, and
resentment at his treatment.

It must not be supposed that such outrages as I have narrated were
continuous. There were long intervals of quiet, and there were many students
whose demeanor was never censurable. In a report to the Trustees in 1822 the
Faculty unanimously used this language, "When we consider the numbers,
industry and virtuous and manly deportment of the young men who resorted to
this place for the purpose of obtaining an education we are ready to
congratulate ourselves on the great present and increasing prosperity of the
institution."

AMENDMENTS TO CHARTER--OLD EAST ENLARGED--OLD WEST
BUILT.

In 1819 important amendments to the charter, drawn by Bartlett Yancey,
were enacted. By the charter of 1789 there were five Trustees from each
judicial district, in all 40. Vacancies were to be filled by the other
Trustees. The members present with the President and Treasurer, or a majority
without either of those officers, were a quorum. By act of 1798 the attendance
of the Treasurer was dispensed with. By act of 1804 filling vacancies devolved
on the General Assembly and the number was raised to not exceeding eight for
each district. By act of 1805 the Governor was made President of the Board
ex officio, but, if he wished, he could appoint a
substitute. The Board could vacate the seat of a member who had not attended
for two years. By act of 1807, it being found difficult to secure a majority,
seven were constituted a quorum, and could appoint a President
pro tempore.

The General Assembly did not carry out the law requiring eight from
each Judicial District. In 1821 there were in office 54 Trustees. These were
continued, namely, John Haywood, Benjamin Smith, William Polk, Henry Potter,
Archibald D. Murphey, Duncan Cameron, Joseph Caldwell, Thomas Winns,

The number was now increased to 65, being the number of the counties,
but the residence of one in each county was not prescribed. Nine additional
were elected, namely, Lewis D. Henry, Francis Lister Hawks, Richard Dobbs
Spaight, the younger, Solomon Graves, James Strudwick Smith, M.D., Leonard
Martin, Thomas Wharton Blackledge, Thomas Burgess, and Archibald Roane
Ruffin.

Vacancies were to be filled by the General Assembly. The extraordinary
power was given to the Board at their annual meetings to remove a Trustee for
improper conduct, provided fifteen should be present. The usual quorum was
fixed at seven. Special meetings were authorized but they could not alter any
"order, resolution or vote" of an annual meeting. The restriction
on the power of special meetings was made more stringent by an act passed in
1824.

The active Trustees at this period were William Miller, John Branch,
Edward Jones, James Mebane, Frederick Nash, David Stone, Henry Seawell,
President Caldwell, John Haywood, Thomas D. Bennehan, William Polk, Wm.
McPheeters, D.D., James Webb, Thomas Ruffin, A. B. Murphey, Simmons J. Baker,
Robert Williams, of Raleigh, James Iredell, of Edenton, afterwards Raleigh.

In this year on the urgency of President Caldwell, the Trustees
resolved to add a story to the Old East and to build the Old West of the same
size, and also a new Chapel. The necessary

funds were expected from the Tennessee
land sales, and in anticipation thereof $10,000 was borrowed from the
banks. Two years afterwards $20,000 additional was authorized, and the
bank stock of the University, in the total 375 shares, pledged for re-payment.
Afterwards another $10,000 was raised in the same way. The
committeee recommended that the permission of the
General Assembly should be obtained but this was not done. The salary of the
President was at the same time increased to $1,600.

The resolution to enter upon the construction of new buildings was in
opposition to the views of the Faculty. In an earnest paper, in the handwriting
of Professor Mitchell, it was urged that the true policy was to purchase books
and apparatus. "The first impression of enlightened strangers is
uniformly favorable," they say. "But when we show them our library
and inform them that we have little or no philosophical apparatus, we sink even
more than is reasonable in their estimation."

It seems that the large room in the middle of the south side on the
first floor of the South Building, now the Law Room, extended to the third
floor, and was called Prayer Hall. The Faculty recommended that a floor be
thrown across this at the second story and the space below be turned into two
large lodging rooms, which by an arrangement common in other colleges might be
used for recitation rooms. The second story might be used for a Library and
Philosophical Chamber. The present Library should be converted into two lecture
rooms. These changes would provide for 106 students in all, and perhaps room
might be made in the fourth story of the South Building, thus accommodating
110. The proportions of those living in the University buildings to those
living without last session were 82 to 68. The alterations would make the
numbers 106 to 44, or 110 to 40.

The petition closes with this extraordinary argument and prediction.
If invested in apparatus, the property will not be perishable.
"Instruments with careful usage will be as valuable one hundred years
hence as now."

The Trustees could not be diverted from their purpose, but they
resolved to purchase the apparatus, some of which after

the lapse of 75 years is still used. The floor was thrown above Prayer Hall,
but the room below was not divided but converted into a Chemical Laboratory.
The ceiling was built and the rooms above made into a combined Library and
Lecture Room for the President and Professor of Rhetoric. The stately books,
dust-covered and unread, remained until the erection of Smith Hall in 1852.

At the same time the cupola on the South Building was torn down
because of its ruinous and leaky condition, and the roof made continuous. The
cupola was not replaced until after the expiration of over thirty years.

The work on all the buildings was left to Wm. Nichols, architect of
the old Capitol at Raleigh. The plan was for him to make contracts for lumber,
labor and other things necessary and obtain the funds for paying for the same
from the Building Committee, often advancing the amounts out of his own
resources. It was found that the two buildings and some repairs and changes in
the South Building would cost $26,587.54, including $1,000 for
commissions for the services and compensation of Nichols, including also
surveying and laying off some lots at Chapel Hill. The bricks were made on the
University lands, the water being obtained from the spring south of the present
Athletic Field known as Brickyard, but in old days, Rock Spring.

After this settlement, which exhausted the funds on hand, the Building
Committee concluded that the prospect of sales of Tennessee lands and
collections for those already sold justified them in proceeding with the
erection of the new Chapel. A bargain was made with Mr. Nichols that he should
assume the responsibility of all payments and await the convenience of the
Trustees for re-imbursements. Probably on account of the panic of 1825 he was
unable to meet the demands upon him. The creditors urged their claims upon the
Trustees. The Committee therefore deemed it best to stop the work and discharge
all the debts, especially as there was no prospect of funds from any source
necessary for completing the building. The amount expended, together with
compensation to Nichols, was $3,410.14. There was abundant hostile
criticism of his management,

which the committee frankly
admitted to have been wasteful and costly. They excused themselves partly by
their distance from Chapel Hill and partly by the fact that the Superintendent
was for several months disabled by a dislocated ankle.

EXIT THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL--COMMENCEMENTS, 1820-'29.

When Abner W. Clopton gave up the Grammar School in 1819, the
University abandoned it. At that time there was an uncommonly good classical
school in Hillsboro called the Hillsboro Academy. The general superintendence
was under Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, but the active teacher was Mr. John
Rogers, who had distinguished himself in his profession at Wilmington.
President Caldwell induced them to agree that their institution should be
preparatory to the University. Members of the faculty could participate in the
periodical examinations of the pupils and those passing the examinations of the
highest classes had a right to enter the University on certificate of the
fact.

The old Grammar School house was then left to the bats and owls, but
was after some years in the occupancy of a family whose head was the last
survivor in this section of a class, important in the early settlement of the
country, and interesting figures in fiction--that of the professional
hunter. His name was Peyton Clements.

Notwithstanding that the University ceased its connection with a
preparatory school at Chapel Hill, sundry teachers endeavored to supply its
place. The first was a graduate of the class of 1816, James A. Craig, who
advertised extensively in the Raleigh Register, then
the State Gazette. We have no means of knowing his
success, but feel sure that parents at a distance were not willing to send to
him their boys of tender years. Certainly when Judge Battle and others in 1843
and 1844 attempted, with very competent teachers, to inaugurate a flourishing
academy at Chapel Hill the number of pupils did not exceed a dozen, not one of
whom was from abroad. The schools here relied on local patronage and that was
meagre. Still from time to time, intermittently, there have been teachers of
intelligence and skill, and many of their boys have taken a high stand in the
University.

The first honor in the class of 1820 was assigned to Charles G.
Spaight, the next to Wm. H. Battle. Then came Thomas B. Slade, Thomas E. Read,
Bartholomew F. Moore, James H. Otey, and Thomas H. Wright.

In scholarship a shade the best, Charles G. Spaight, son of Governor
Richard Dobbs Spaight, the elder, who spoke the Latin Salutatory, was a man of
great promise. He represented New Bern in the Legislature but his upward career
was cut off by early death. Next to him Battle, to whom the Valedictory was
assigned, was Reporter of the Supreme Court and Judge of the Superior and
Supreme Courts of this State. Another honor speech was by Thomas B. Slade, on
Natural Philosophy. He emigrated to Columbus, Georgia, and became the Principal
of the first great female school in the State, a Doctor of Divinity in the
Baptist church. Read's career I have not been able to trace. Moore was one of
the most eminent lawyers the State has had, particularly distinguished in
constitutional questions. James H. Otey was the venerable Bishop of Tennessee.
Wright was a physician and President of the Bank of Cape Fear. Connected with
this class, but not graduating, was John Hill, of Stokes; a Representative in
Congress and member of the Convention of 1861, dying soon after voting for the
Ordinance of Secession.

The subjects of graduating speeches not named above were:

Are Banks Beneficial to the Country?, debate by Thomas H. Wright and
Matt. A. Palmer.

The Character of Thomas Jefferson, William Royal.

Ought Colleges to be in Populous Cities or Small Villages?, debate by
Phil. H. Thomas and Richard I. Smith.

Ought Interest to be Regulated by Law?, James F. Martin and Cyrus A.
Alexander.

The Advantages of Industry, David W. Stone.

The Character of American Indians, Wm. H. Hardin.

Ought Novels to be Interdicted by Law?, debate by John M. Starke and
Archibald G. Carter.

The Study of Nature, James H. Otey.

The degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred on Malcolm G. Purcell and
the honorary degree of Bachelor of Arts on Ransom Hubbell. These were students
of irregular standing, but deemed substantially to have earned the degree.

The best of the class of 1821 was J. R. J. Daniel, who spoke the Latin
Salutatory. Next was Anderson Mitchell, who had the Valedictory, and third and
fourth were Edward G. Pasteur and Joseph H. Saunders, to whom were assigned
respectively the Natural Philosophy Oration and that on the Belles Lettres.

Daniel became Attorney-General of this State and Representative in
Congress, then a planter in Louisiana; Mitchell a Tutor in this University, a
Representative in Congress and then a Judge; Pasteur was a Judge in Alabama;
Saunders, a Tutor in this University, an Episcopal clergyman, who sacrificed
his life for his flock in a yellow fever pestilence in Pensacola, the father of
Colonel William L. Saunders, of the class of 1854.

Of the others Mhoon became State Treasurer; Thomas J. Lacey, a Judge
in Arkansas; and George Washington Haywood, a leader of the Raleigh bar.

Of the non-graduates, Spier Whitaker was Attorney-General of North
Carolina and settled in Iowa after the Civil War.

A matriculate of this year, Leonidas Polk, son of Col. Wm. Polk,
became a graduate of West Point, then Bishop of Louisiana, Lieutenant-General
of the Confederacy, and was killed on Pine Mountain in Georgia in 1864.

For the Commencement of 1821 there was projected a scheme of exercises
of portentous length. On Monday evening was "Public Speaking,"
presumably declamations, by Messrs. Joel Holleman, George W. Whitfield, James
H. Dickson, Wm. M. Inge, Alfred Scales, Abram Rencher and James Norwood.

On Tuesday evening was Public Speaking by Messrs. Robert V. Ogden,
Benjamin Sumner, George S. Bettner, Robert B. Gilliam, Daniel B. Baker, John W.
Norwood and John W. Potts.

On Wednesday evening were declamations by representatives of the two
societies. On Thursday, besides the speeches by the honor men, were the
following "disputes:"

1. Has the Art of Husbandry been advanced more by the Philosophical
Agriculturist than by the Practical Farmer? Debaters. Wm. A. Mebane and Wm.
Murphey.

2. Have the Moderns equaled the Ancients in Eloquence? Debaters,
Robert Cowan and Bryan S. Croom.

3. Is it probable that the Aborigines of America would ever have
equalled the Ancient Romans if they never had had intercourse with the
Europeans? Debaters, Frederick J. Cutlar and Henry S. Garnett.

4. Is it Sound Policy in the People of North Carolina to open and
improve the navigation of their rivers and coasts? Debaters, Benjamin F.
Blackledge and G. W. Haywood.

5. Are early Marriages to be recommended? Debaters, Pleasant Henderson
and William Shaw.

6. Is a Public preferable to a Private Education? Debaters, Rufus
Haywood and James Taylor; Thompson Johnston, Umpire.

7. Has the Advancement of the Arts promoted the Happiness of Mankind?
Debaters, Johnson Alves and Thomas J. Lacey.

On November 22, 1821, probably by the potent influence of State
Treasurer Haywood, Charles Manly, a young lawyer, who had married Haywood's
niece, was elected Secretary and Treasurer of the University in place of
General Robert Williams, deceased. The books of Williams were in such disorder
that an expert accountant, Daniel Dupre, was employed to straighten them and
the expense, $110, collected out of his

estate.
There was no suspicion of fault except carelessness. Manly was an excellent
officer, and being a polished speaker, of imposing manners, and an humorous
reconteur, he was a welcome visitor to the annual
Commencements for 48 years. In 1848 and 1849 he attended as Governor and
President of the Board of Trustees, Major Charles L. Hinton holding the office
of Secretary and Treasurer until the expiration of his term as Governor, and
restoring it to him in 1850.

In January, 1822, the community was thrown into a small-pox panic by
the tidings that ten newly arrived students had slept in Tarboro, a village
where that fell disease was prevalent. Among them were Augustus Moore, David
Outlaw and Simmons J. Baker. The Faculty promptly ordered them to be
"rusticated" five miles from Chapel Hill until the danger was
passed.

On account of ill health Prof. Wm. Hooper resigned his Professorship
of Ancient Languages and became rector of St. John's Episcopal Parish in
Fayetteville. He recommended as his successor Mr. Manton Eastburn, of
Massachusetts, afterwards Bishop, as having distinguished literary
acquirements, particularly in the classics. He was a "brother of the
young man whose late untimely end Piety and Poetry must so long lament."
Professor Hooper adds the suggestion that it might be agreeable to many of the
influential families of the State to have an Episcopal representative in the
Faculty.

President Caldwell, however, acting on the endorsement of Professor
Goodrich, of Yale College, recommended Mr. Ethan Allen Andrews, of Connecticut.
He would bring the University "merit, talent and solid worth." He
was a Senior when Messrs. Mitchell and Olmstead were Freshmen, obtaining the
first honor in a class of sixty; a fine scholar and of classical taste. His
profession was that of the law, and he had been a member of the Legislature.
"His connections are numerous and respectable." A strong praise of
Prof. Hooper was given.

At the Commencement of 1822, the graduates being 28 in number, the
highest honor men were Benjamin Sumner, who delivered the Latin Salutatory;
Robert N. Ogden, the Valedictory, with an oration on the Moral Sublime; and
Joel Holleman, the Natural Philosophy address.

Of the other orators, Benjamin F. Haywood and Thomas Hill dared to
attack the venerable question, "Is Homer's Iliad Actual History?";
Joseph A. Hogan endeavored to elucidate the character of Byron's Poetry; Lucius
J. Polk and Wm. D. Pickett discussed whether the new South American States
would continue to enjoy Political Freedom, while James Bowman discoursed on
Eloquence, whether eloquently or not does not appear; Robert J. Martin plunged
into State politics and proved that a Convention should be called to rectify
inequalities in representation in the General Assembly. In the afternoon Wm. B.
Davies spoke on Belles Lettres, William D. Jones on Intellectual Philosophy,
Thomas F. Davis and Robert H. Mason debated whether Studies, not having
immediate bearing on Political Life, are a part of a Liberal Education. The
Cultivation of Good Morals was inculcated by one whose name is not given,
probably by one of those to be preachers, John L. Davies, Wm. A. Hall or James
G. Hall, who had not already spoken.

Of the honor men of the class of 1822, Benjamin Sumner, a relation of
Brigadier-General Jethro Sumner, was an esteemed Classical teacher and member
of the Legislature; Robert N. Ogden, Judge of the Superior Court of Louisiana,
and Joel Holleman, a Representative in Congress from Virginia. Other members
were Thomas F. Davis, Bishop of South Carolina; John G. Elliott, a quaint but
able teacher, so cadaverous as to receive the nickname of Ghost, which he
good-humoredly adopted as his middle name; Fabius J. Haywood, a physician of
Raleigh, of large practice; Pleasant W. Kittrell, State Representative of
Granville, an esteemed physician and University Trustee; Wm. D. Pickett, a
Judge of the Superior Court of Alabama; Lucius J. Polk, planter,
Adjutant-General of Tennessee; Abram W. Rencher, member of Congress, Governor
of New Mexico, and Charge d'Affaires to Portugal.

Of the non-graduates, conspicuous were Patrick Henry Winston, of
Rockingham County, a learned old bachelor, lawyer and Reporter of the Supreme
Court, and Hugh McQueen, Attorney-General of the State, a brilliant speaker of
irregular habits, who emigrated to Texas. He wrote a book called
"Touchstone of Oratory." He recommends the young orator

to strengthen his vocal chords by declaiming extracts of
great speeches as loudly as God gives him the power, preferably in the depths
of a forest.

STATE GEOLOGIST.

In this year (1822) the General Assembly authorized a Board of
Agriculture, and in the next year gave the Board authority to employ a
"person of competent skill and science to commence and carry on a
geological and mineralogical survey of this State." The modest sum of
$250 per annum for four years, and a year in addition, was appropriated.
The Board employed Professor Olmsted, who made a report which was published,
the first probably of any State in the Union. After he returned to Yale the
survey was continued by Prof. Mitchell, who made one report. The appropriation
was not renewed. Both Professors made tours through the State. Part of the
diary of Dr. Mitchell is published as the James Sprunt Historical Monograph of
1906.

Of the class of 1823, in number 28, Richmond M. Pearson, afterwards
Judge of the Superior and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was first and
spoke the Latin Salutatory. Wm. S. Chapman was also first with the Valedictory,
afterwards a Judge in Alabama. Thomas G. Graham, second honor man, was a
physician; Robert B. Gilliam became Speaker of the House and a Judge of the
Superior Court; Daniel W. Courts became State Senator and Treasurer; George S.
Bettner was a physician in New Bern and New York, and author of a book called
"Acton, or the Circle of Life;" James H. Dickson was a physician of
wide reputation, author of an admirable address before the Alumni Association;
and James Augustus Washington achieved a national reputation as a
physician.

Matriculating with these, though not graduating, were Wm. M. Inge, a
Judge in Tennessee; Alexander D. Sims, a member of Congress in South Carolina;
and Thomas Jefferson Green, a member of the Legislatures of North Carolina,
Florida, California and Texas, a member of the Texas Congress when it was a
Republic and a Brigadier-General in the Texan army.

Debate--Ought Military Posts be established on Columbia River?,
Alexander M. Boylan against James K. Leitch.

Robert B. Gilliam, American Literature.

George F. Davidson, Character of the Irish.

James H. Dickson, Will the new States of South America continue
free?

James A. Washington, Superstition of the Hindoos.

George S. Bettner, Belles Lettres.

Daniel W. Courts, Theatrical Entertainments.

Thomas J. Sumner, Oratory.

John Rains, Effects of the Waverly Novels.

Wm. S. Chapman, Sympathy, with the Valedictory.

The grades of Pearson, Chapman and Graham have been mentioned. The
third distinction was given to Bettner, Rains and Washington. What was called
the "intermediate" grade was assigned to James H. Dickson, Robert
B. Gilliam, Thomas J. Sumner, George F. Davidson, Daniel W. Courts and Matthias
E. Sawyer.

Nineteen out of twenty-eight members of the Senior class of 1823
concluded, after they had passed their final examinations, to celebrate the
event by having a "high old time." They procured a large quantity
of whiskey and brandy and carried it to a gushing spring north of the village,
known as Foxhall, doubtless a corruption of Vauxhall, once a London pleasure
resort, and proceeded to get on, as the phrase goes, a "glorious
drunk." The tradition of the extravagance of this carousal lingers yet
about the village. After the reason of one of them was in a measure dethroned,
he proceeded to make a wholesale toddy by pouring the liquor into the spring,
forgetting how rapidly it would be diluted.

On being summoned before the Faculty the delinquents pleaded that they
entered into the revelry because it was the last time they would be together,
and these final "treats," as

they were
called, were customary with the Senior classes. The sentence was that
"proper concessions and acknowledgments" shall be made by all,
except one, and that then their diplomas should be granted. Direful
threatenings were made as to future like disorders. The excepted student almost
lost his diploma, because, in addition to being inattentive to all his duties,
he had behaved in a riotous manner on the streets after the "Senior
treat." Among the festive youths of 1823 were a future Chief Justice, a
State Treasurer, two Judges of the Superior Court, four prominent physicians,
several able lawyers and other like good citizens. It is comforting to know
that the expected one wrote such a feeling and dignified letter of contrition
as to induce the Faculty to pardon him and the tale of the class was not
lessened.

About this time two students were accused of writing scurrilous and
defamatory letters. One confessed and was reprimanded. The other, who falsely
denied his guilt and had committed the same offence before, was suspended. He
afterwards attained high legislative and judicial positions. It is altogether
likely, though not so stated, that the defamation was abuse of the Faculty.

CALDWELL'S VISIT TO EUROPE.

In February, 1824, President Caldwell addressed to the Board very
important recommendations. The first was for the purchase of more books. Much
advantage was derived from the expenditure for this purpose of the two dollars
per annum fee from each student, but this was not sufficient. Without it
"we must have become completely stationary, within limits, which if known
to others, would have been disgraceful." "A Professor in a college
without books in tolerable supply, is analagous to the creation of nobility,
which for want of estate is obliged to live in rags." He then compares a
bookless Professor to a lawyer without a legal library, to a shoemaker without
awls or lasts, to a printer with insufficient types. Books were much cheaper in
England than in America and cheaper on the Continent than in England.

He added that it was impossible to carry on the study of Natural,
sometimes called Experimental, Philosophy, without a proper supply of
apparatus. For the purchase of such a reliable

agent is
necessary. "An Astronomical Clock, a Transit Instrument, an Astronomical
Telescope, are articles of high cost, and if they be not really good, they are
so much money thrown away, only to tantalize us with standing objects of
chagrin and disappointment." Makers of philosophical apparatus, unless
carefully watched, will have their defective articles "mingled with the
mass of his instruments of the same kind and talked off upon the terms of the
best."

The President then modestly suggests his willingness to act for the
Trustees, paying his own expenses. He would be compensated for the sacrifice by
"personal improvement and accession of strength in regard to the affairs
of the University." He submits to the judgment of the Trustees. Whatever
they shall judge to be the best he "shall be prepared to admit in a
moment, and to settle upon it with the utmost complacency and
conclusiveness." The offer involved a trip to Europe, then a very
expensive and prolonged journey, full of physical discomforts.

The Trustees felt strong enough to spend $6,000, to be divided
equally between books and apparatus, and accepted the offer of the President.
We have a long letter of his to Dr. Olmsted giving some account of his voyage.
The writer was singularly lacking in enthusiasm, the wonderful sights of the
Old World not seeming to quicken the heart-throbs of the back-woods
mathematician. It is dated London, August 31, 1824. It was forwarded by
"Y. A. Steamer, Thomas W. Evans, Liverpool," and was received at
New York October 4th. It is as follows:

"It is now, it seems, more than two months since I arrived at
Liverpool from New York, and more than three since I left the latter of these
cities. After arriving in London I continued nearly a month in the city, first
visiting places and institutions of importance and becoming acquainted with
books and book-sellers, and instruments and instrument-makers. Having informed
myself of circumstances and characters I made a number of purchases and
engagements, and set off in a steam packet which runs between London and
Edinburgh. After a passage of 3 1-2 days we arrived on the Forth, where the
scenery of Scotland began to open upon our view. This was characterized

by what is known as North Berwick Low, and Bass Rock at
the entrance of the Forth, as well as several other elevated places, presenting
the first appearance of those masses of rock, of which Scotland seems very much
composed. After having a pretty rough passage along the British coast of the
German ocean, during which most of the passengers and myself too, at last
became sick, we found a beautiful contrast in the tranquility and glossy
smoothness of the Forth. I continued in Edinburgh 10 days, and then passing
over to Glasgow, and staying some days, I set out for Loch Lomond, Rob Roy's
Cave, the Highlands, Loch Katrine and the Trosachs, returning by Callender,
Doane and Stirling to Edinburgh, down the Forth in a steamboat. I stayed two or
three days between Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine, among the mountains, in a
house or rather a cluster of buildings, called the Garrison, which had been
built 120 years ago, or more, as a station for troops, to keep in check the
wild clansmen of those times and subdue them to the English power. The garrison
is about a mile from Rob's Cave, and from a spot where they tell us his house
probably stood. One object for staying here was to be for some time in the
country of the shepherds, whom I visited in their cottages to observe their
mode of life and opportunities and customs and state of society. This is the
tour which is very commonly made by people from England and the Lowlands of
Scotland, and its objects have had much interest added to them by the writings
of Sir W. Scott. While in Loch Lomond I attempted to visit the summit of Ben
Lomond, the highest mountain but one in Scotland, but when near the top I was
driven back by a storm, and was thus prevented from seeing those extensive
prospects, which constitute the principal object of the ascent.

"After my return to Edinburgh, reflecting to how little purpose
it is to be visiting universities during their vacations, as I had some
occasion to experience in Edinburgh, I concluded to postpone my visits to
Cambride and Oxford till after my return from the
Continent, and traveled sometimes on foot, but for the most part by coach to
this place, whence I am expecting to set out for Paris this week. Present me
respectfully and affectionately to Mrs. Olmstead and Miss Harriet and all my
friends."

The apparatus bought by the President was the best manufactured in
that day. It is a remarkable proof of his sensitive integrity, that when part
of it was lost by shipwreck, he offered to the Trustees to replace it out of
his own funds. The following statement by our Professor of Physics shows that
some of the implements are in good order after the wear and tear, and at other
times, neglect and misuse, of three-quarters of a century. Professor Gore
further states that the full list of purchases shows that they were made with
excellent judgment.

Mrs. Fannie DeB. Whitaker has presented to the University, among other
papers found among those of her grandfather, Dr. William Hooper, the account of
Francis McPherson, for a portion of the books purchased: 53 volumes of Delphin
Classics, 89 to 141, were rated £55. 13s., about $277.25, or
£1 1s. ($5.25) each; for binding 83 volumes, calf, lettered
contents, hollow backs and bands, £12 9s., or 3c. each; the packing case,
10s., shipping expenses, duty, etc., £17; the whole bill being £77
1s. 6d. This is given to show the prices of that day.

The account rendered by the President showed an expenditure--

For books

$3,234.74

Philosophical and astronomical apparatus

3,361.35

Minerals

9.00

Boxing, packing, transportation and exchange

632.92

7,238.01

which exceeded the appropriation ($6,000) by
$1,238.01. This excess was paid by the President, but refunded by the
Board. The number of volumes of books purchased was 979. Mr. Cattell,
Page 295

a bookseller in London, presented the University six
volumes in folio, the works of Thuanus, and the British and Foreign Bible
Society donated six volumes of the minutes of the Society, also 48 volumes,
being copies of the Bible in different languages.

One of Dr. Caldwell's most worthy pupils, the late Paul C. Cameron,
whose love and admiration continued fresh during a long life of over four-score
years after leaving his instruction, gives a vivid picture of his reception on
his arrival from Europe.

"A trip to Europe was not then a summer's jaunt of a few weeks,
but caused his absence for nearly a year; and on his return to New York he
announced his arrival to Prof. Mitchell, the acting President of the
University, and the probable day of his arrival in Chapel Hill. He was on time.
The students of the University resolved on a welcome. A brilliant
illumination--the first and only one ever made in these
buildings--was resolved on and it was an entire success. Well do I recall
the splendor of that night and the procession of the students to his residence
and his stepping out upon the floor of the back piazza--the cheer after
cheer that was given to the dear old man. Falling into line, the march back to
the college was commenced, and on our arrival at the front door of the South
Building the President was escorted to a stand near the well, from which he
addressed the students and the entire village population with the affection of
a long absent father, for he was indeed full of feeling, and it was with
difficulty he could give utterance to his words. He was escorted back to his
modest home, and the impression prevailed that it was the happiest day of his
life--the consummation of his supreme joy."

At their meeting in December, 1825, the Trustees unanimously thanked
the President for his "faithful and judicious discharge of the trust
committed to him, and that he be assured of the unabated confidence of the
Trustees in his ability and devotion, at once honorable to him, gratifying to
the Trustees and useful to the community." The resolution was drawn by
Mr. Badger, who had a deserved reputation for felicitous English.

The highest honor men of the class of 1824 were Edmund D. Sims, of
Virginia; Matthias Evans Manly, Thomas Dews, and William Alexander Graham. The
second honor man was E. J. Frierson. The third, John W. Norwood, James H.
Norwood, Benjamin B. Blume, Robert Hall, Henry E. Coleman, Thomas Bond,
Augustus Moore and David Outlaw. Sims spoke the Latin Salutatory, Manly the
Valedictory, Dews the Mathematical Oration, and to Graham was assigned the
Classical oration.

The other speakers at Commencement were:

Should the United States assist the South American Republic against
Spain and the Holy Alliance?, by Bromfield L. Ridley.

Should a Professorship of Law be established at the University? James
W. Bryan.

The Mahometan Religion, Thomas Bond.

American Literature, John W. Norwood.

Should the American Colonization Society receive the patronage of the
Public, Robert H. Booth.

Of the foregoing, Sims was Tutor in this University and Professor in
Randolph-Macon and the University of Alabama; Matthias E. Manly was Speaker of
the State Senate, Judge of the Superior and Supreme Courts of this State,
elected in 1866 United States Senator, but not allowed to take his seat. Thomas
Dews became a very able lawyer, but dying early. William A. Graham, State
Senator and Commoner, Speaker of the House, United States Senator, Secretary of
the Navy, nominee for the Vice-Presidency on the Winfield Scott ticket, member
of the Convention of 1861, Confederate States Senator, Trustee for thirty-five
years and a warm supporter of the University. To him was assigned the classical
oration.

Other noted graduates of 1824 were Daniel B. Baker, Judge of the
Superior Court of Florida; John Bragg, member of Congress and Judge of the
Superior Court of Alabama; James W. Bryan, strong lawyer, Trustee of the
University and State Senator from Craven; A. J. DeRosset, physician and
merchant of Wilmington, Treasurer of the Dioceses of North and East Carolina
and often Deputy in the General Conventions of the Episcopal church; Augustus
Moore, Judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina; John W. Norwood, able
lawyer and member of the Legislature; David Outlaw, member of Congress, State
Solicitor, State Senator and Delegate to the Convention of 1835; and Bromfield
L. Ridley, Chancellor of Tennessee.

On December 19, 1824, Dr. James S. Smith addressed a communication to
the Board recommending the employment of a regular physician for the students,
to be compensated by a fee from each. He expressed his willingness to undertake
the work himself, and in addition conduct a private Medical School together
with an Eye Infirmary. Dr. Smith was a physician of established reputation, a
Trustee of the University, and had been a Representative in Congress. The plan
was not adopted until three-quarters of a century later. Soon, however, there
was urgent need of skilled medical service.

In this year a settlement was had with Wm. Nichols, who enjoyed the
double position of supervisor and builder. The accounts seem to show that there
was a want of careful superintendence by Nichols. One of the entries is,
"to sundry persons at sundry times, upon several drafts at sundry times
by the Building Committee" $7,402.04." The final account is
"Labor and material in repairing President's House, Steward's Hall,
getting timber, making bricks and building new Chapel, taking down cupola from
the South Building, repairing roof and building belfry," in addition to
the expense of building the West Building, $26,587.57. The Trustees
became disgusted with the continual drain from their treasury, and as the
receipts of sales of Tennessee lands had greatly dwindled, the new Chapel
(Gerrard Hall) was suffered to be unfinished and unoccupied for over ten years.
The delusion that it was necessary to have the Building Committee composed of
members of the Board, although

they lived a day's
journey from Chapel Hill, proved to be very expensive in practice. The notion
that college professors lacked practical sense was probably the cause of the
delusion.

SOME COLLEGE PRANKS.

Colonel Benjamin Forsyth was killed in battle in Canada in the war of
1812 and gave his name to a county. The education of his son, James N., was
being paid for by the General Assembly. In 1824 he forfeited his place in the
University by irregular conduct. He afterwards entered the navy and was lost
with the ship Hornet, on which he was a petty
officer.

One division of the Sophomores and the whole of the Freshman class
absented themselves from recitation on the morning of Senior speaking. They
were all required individually to acknowledge the impropriety of their conduct,
and pledge themselves to refrain from similar conduct in the future. All gladly
complied except R. J., who was dismissed. Ten days afterwards he made the
required promises and was readmitted.

In 1824 occurred a flagrant outrage. A. A. and L. K. loaded themselves
with whiskey in the village grog-shop, and arming themselves, one with a club
and the other with a pistol, "sallied forth for the purpose of attacking
the persons of different members of the Faculty." They committed
"violent outrages" on two of the persons hunted.

The young criminals expressed their regret for their misconduct, but
it appeared to the authorities assembled impossible that the peace and good
order of the institution could be maintained, if such outrages were permitted
to pass without exemplary punishment. The said A. A. and L. K. were therefore

expelled. As we now say, "the line was
drawn" at cudgelling the Faculty with sticks, while looking into the
muzzle of loaded pistols.

W. R. was dismissed for twice throwing brickbats into the room of the
Tutor.

A youth, who afterwards became a distinguished physician, came from
the village in a state of intoxication and disturbed the good order of the
College in a most outrageous and violent manner. As this was the first offence,
he was sentenced to receive an admonition in the presence of the Faculty, and a
minute of the proceedings was read in the Chapel after evening prayers.

There was a strange occurrence, at this day not to be accounted for.
In November, 1828, after the students assembled for divine worship in the
Chapel on Sunday morning, thirty of them retired from the hall, not all at once
but by degrees. The Faculty proceeded next morning to investigate the matter.
It was explained that two laws of the institution, one certainly and the other
apparently, had been broken. The first was absence from Divine service, the
second combination or conspiracy to break a law. The absentees were severally
examined as to their conduct. Seven at once gave satisfactory excuses, and were
allowed to retire. At an adjourned meeting six others offered valid excuses for
withdrawing. The remaining seventeen after being questioned disavowed any
combination, and the trial was ended. The causa causans of the movement cannot be ascertained,
possibly some transient anger against the preacher. Some of the most orderly
students were among the retiring party, for instance, Wm. Eaton, R. H. Smith of
Halifax, Cadwallader Jones of Hillsboro, Judge James Grant of Iowa.

On the resignation of Professor Olmsted, passed into the ownership of
the University the dwelling occupied for many years by Dr. James Phillips and
of late by President Venable. Belonging to a widow lady, Mrs. Puckett, it was
bought from her for $1,300 by Dr. Denison Olmsted, who spent $900
on it by way of additions and repairs. After having converted, to use his
language, "an awkward, inconvenient and rude structure into a handsome,
commodious and neat dwelling," a description

which
must be deemed quite roseate by those who have seen its perpendicular outlines
and inconvenient interior, he induced the Board of Trustees to take it off his
hands at cost, using the argument that the expense of removal from New Haven
and of living had exhausted his funds. The lot was set apart for the use of the
Professors of Chemistry, but between Dr. Olmsted and Dr. Venable there was an
interregnum of over three-score years.

Dr. Olmsted resigned his professorship in December, 1825, and accepted
that of Mathematics in Yale College, (now University). In 1836 he was
transferred to the Chair of Astronomy and Natural Philosophy. He published
text-books of value in the departments of science under his charge, and a
number of biographical memoirs. He made important observations on hail,
meteors, the aurora borealis, etc., which were published in the Smithsonian
Contributions. He was born in East Hartford, Conn., June 18, 1791, and died May
13, 1859. His work in North Carolina has been described elsewhere.

The distinctions of the class of 1825 were awarded as follows:

1st. To John M. Gee, Wm. H. Hodge, and Marshall T. Polk.

2d. To Wm. J. Bingham, Wm. P. Boylan, James Martin, James Moore, and
John J. Wyche.

3d. In the order of their names, to Frederic W. Harrison, Walter
Alves, Albert Vine Allen, Burwell B. Wilkes, Wm. A. Wright, and James C.
Bruce.

The program at Commencement has been lost, except that Polk spoke the
Latin Salutatory, Hodge the Valedictory, Gee the English Salutatory, Wright,
Bruce Harrison and Alves had what were called Intermediate Orations, but the
subjects are unknown.

Of these, Polk, a brother of President Polk, settled in North Carolina
at Charlotte, and was cut off in early life, considered one of the most
promising young lawyers in the State. His son, of the same name, who became
Treasurer of Tennessee, not a son of the University, left children who are
among the best citizens of that State. Hodge was a physician of Tarboro, and
then of Granville. Wm. A. Wright was an able lawyer of Wilmington and President
of the Bank of Cape Fear; Harrison

was a physician in
Virginia; Bruce a wealthy and cultured planter of Virginia, and member of its
General Assembly; William J. Bingham, the second able Principal of the Bingham
School, whose fame under him was extended; Wyche was a Tutor of the University
and Professor in Jefferson College, Mississippi; Alves, a physician in
Kentucky; Allen, a lawyer of much reputation.

The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) was conferred on
Nathaniel Macon, United States Senator; that of Master of Arts (A. M.) on
Charles Bailly and on John H. Eaton, of Tennessee, a matriculate of 1803. To
William Glascock, of Virginia, a matriculate of 1816, was granted the degree of
Bachelor of Arts (A. B.)

In August and September of the year 1825 there was a very serious
sickness in the University, evidently typhoid fever. Three students
died--Wm. H. Beard, Zenas Johnston, and another whose name is not
recorded. The acting President reported that the first two brought the seeds of
disease with them. From an unknown cause it was thought that the air was worse
than usual, as was shown by the pallid countenances of the students generally.
There were no ponds or marshes near Chapel Hill and the disorder was attributed
to "unknown conditions of the air or water." The learned Professor
drops no hints of ferocious and treacherous bacteria. Skilled physicians had
stated that the elevated parts of the country had suffered most. He recommends
that a resident physician should be obtained, who should teach a class of
medical students.

At that date the Faculty had no power to prevent theatrical and other
shows. Urgent request was made that they be invested with such authority. A
band of strolling players had given nightly dramatic performances for a week
and had received, it was estimated, $383, more than $300 of which
was from students. Value received cannot possibly be expected from such acting
and scenery as can be exhibited in a room over a store in this village. The use
of the University Chapel was refused, as intolerable profanation. The General
Assembly passed a law in compliance with the wishes of the Faculty, giving them
prohibitory powers.

It is remarkable that complaint was made that the well between the
buildings had gone dry and the water at that of the Steward's Hall was muddy.
This must have been on account of insufficient depth, as pure water in the
former has been unfailing for the last sixty years certainly. The latter was
filled up when the Hall was torn down about 1846.

It is surprising that when Gerrard Hall, designed for the new Chapel,
was begun the Trustees had it in mind to tear down Person Hall. A vigorous
remonstrance from the Faculty defeated this vandalism.

Dr. Mitchell makes the astonishing statement that the old trees in the
Campus were falling, and there was no undergrowth from which a supply of new
trees was obtainable, and he recommends extensive replanting. Thirty years
afterwards the old trees were so numerous that the English gardener deemed it
necessary to eradicate many.

About this time a prominent Trustee of Wake County, about to remove to
Tennessee, Gen. Calvin Jones, presented to the University his "Museum of
artificial and natural curiosities." Probably some of these are somewhere
among the University collections, but it is doubtful if they can be
identified.

NEW BY-LAWS.

On motion of Bartlett Yancey, a number of resolutions were submitted
to a Committee, and at the June meeting, 1825, were substantially reported back
and adopted. They were:

1st. The appointment by the Trustees of a Superintendent of the
property and financial concerns of the University, who shall reside at Chapel
Hill, give a $10,000 bond, and receive not exceeding $500 salary
per annum.

2d. He was to care for all the property of the institution and carry
out all orders of the Trustees.

3d. Each student shall pay him all his money, and shall pledge his
honor to pay all received at any time. The Superintendent shall out of the same
pay college dues and other necessary expenses, the repair of injury to College
property done by the student; also such purchases of merchants as the student
may buy, and to the student not over one dollar pocket-money each month.

4th. He shall pay the board of the student, provided that the
boarding-house keeper shall have written authority from the Faculty.

5th. He must notify each parent or guardian of the student as to the
amount paid him, and at the middle and end of each session furnish them an
account of expenditures.

6th. No student, under penalty of admonition or suspension, shall
purchase at Chapel Hill or elsewhere, wares or merchandise, or spirituous
liquors, without consent of the Faculty.

7th. No student shall change his room without permission of the
Faculty.

8th. The Superintendent must visit all rooms at least once a week,
note the injuries and their perpetrators, and at the end of the session take
charge of the keys.

9th. Scribbling and other injuries in passages by unknown persons must
be charged to those living on the same.

Thomas H. Taylor, a merchant of Chapel Hill, was appointed to the
office of Superintendent. He did not give satisfaction, and in January, 1829,
the Faculty were empowered to choose the Superintendent out of their number at
a salary of $200. They settled on Elisha Mitchell.

Some Trustees desired to erect another boarding house. In the meantime
the Board of Visitors was authorized to employ some person to live in Steward
Hall and to have the privilege of firewood and the use of the cleared land
adjacent to the Raleigh road free. The Board recommended the students to board
with him. One Moore agreed to rent it for six months, paying fifty dollars.

1st. A uniform dress was prescribed; in summer a coatee of dark gray
mixture, chiefly cotton, decent and cheap, with white pantaloons and waistcoat.
In the winter the whole suit must be blue. By a subsequent ordinance blue was
changed to dark gray.

2d. The wearing of boots was prohibited. It was recommended that the
other parts of the dress should be plain and decent, and the persons
cleanly.

3. The Seniors at Commencement might dress as they pleased, it being
presumed that they would wish superior attire on this momentous epoch in their
lives.

Letters were ordered to be written to Trustees, three in number, who
had not attended any meeting since their appointment, asking them if they
agreed to accept the office tendered them. The movement led to no result. Three
letters were written to which there was only one response.

The annual Board of Visitors was reinforced by the addition of
President Caldwell, who was a Trustee. By this reinforcement there was always
one in attendance. For 1827 the other members were Duncan Cameron, James S.
Smith, and James Webb.

Messrs. Yancey, Badger, and Moore (Alfred), were appointed, on motion
of President Caldwell, to prepare a bill for prohibiting the distillation or
retailing of spirituous liquors at or near Chapel Hill, and to prohibit the
merchants of the village from trading with the students. This was enacted into
a law. A Chapel Hill merchant was subject to indictment for selling without
Faculty permission to a student any article. The liquor prohibition still
exists. The other, always ignored, was repealed years ago.

COL. POLK'S BY-LAWS--PROFESSORS PROTEST.

The next year a properly fitted up room in the College buildings was
ordered to be assigned to each professor, and it was made his duty to be in it
from 9 a.m. to 12 m., and from 2 p.m. to 5 each day, except "Sundays and
other College holidays." The object was to aid in the administration of
discipline and give occasional assistance to the students in their studies.

It was stated that the nightly visitations of the rooms of students by
the Tutors had been insufficient to maintain order and insure the presence of
the students in their apartments. It was therefore required that each student's
room should be visited by a professor at night at least three times a week.

This rigorous code was at the instance of Col. Wm. Polk, who always
regarded students in the light of soldiers in barracks and professors as
military officers. They were, with some modifications, obeyed, by some without
failure, by others spasmodically, until near the beginning of the Civil War.
They led to numberless clashings and ill feelings. The halls and campus were
not lighted, and occasionally stones and cold water were

thrown at an unwelcome visitor. One, who was accused of opening a drawer of the
absent inmate, was forced to hide under a table in order to escape the missiles
through crashing glass. Signals were invented which showed to the listening
students the progress of the professor, so that card-players would have time to
open their dictionaries, and the corn-whiskey bottle could be safely hid. When
the word DOGS! or FACULTY! was shouted from the window of one building, it was
the sign that those in another might expect at once the professorial policeman.
While the manners of some professors were so agreeable that they were usually
welcomed, others were so rough that they became odious. Every species of
disorder was prevalent in the recitation rooms of these latter, partly in the
spirit of childish fun, but mainly for the annoyance of the instructor.

The professors vigorously protested against the mandatory provision in
regard to spending their mornings and afternoons in the College buildings, and
nightly visitation of rooms. Dr. Mitchell addressed an able letter to the
Board, giving cogent reasons against it. He himself could not comply, as he
must spend most of his time in his laboratory, which was in Steward's Hall. It
was unfortunate that the professors were not consulted, as they are in the
position of both witnesses and lawyers. The visiting rooms at night will do no
good, as students wishing to go on excursions will wait, as they do now in case
of the Tutors, until the visits are over. The students will not consult
professors about their studies, as was found by experience at Yale and at
Chapel Hill. They are afraid of the jeers of their fellows. If rooms were
provided the professors would undoubtedly be in them often and so secure better
order without requiring them to spend their mornings and evenings in them. The
professors have not been slow to improve the work of the University of their
own accord. As an instance, when he came to Chapel Hill the two upper classes
recited only once a day, the lower twice. The Faculty have continually
increased the number of recitations, and he believes that they are more
frequent than in any Northern college. The provision will be peculiarly
burdensome for several reasons:

1st. As there is no market in Chapel Hill, the professors must spend
some time in providing for their families.

2d. For their own studies their libraries should be on hand. They
cannot be removed to the College rooms.

3d. Most of the professors are engaged in some study, which would be
broken up if this regulation is in force. Professor Hentz, for example,
"perhaps is one of the most accomplished Entomologists, perhaps the most
accomplished in America." He must ramble in the woods two or three
evenings in the week.

The regulation will be a hardship: 1st, Because professors would be
exposed to a charge of want of fidelity to duty; 2d, it is an evil, because it
precludes the possibility of exact compliance with the laws, and thus gives
excuse to students to neglect them.

Such duties are not required of Professors in the American Colleges,
and those in the wild woods of Chapel Hill, deprived of large libraries and
scientific and literary journals, except what they themselves supply, should
not be loaded with duties not performed elsewhere.

If this provision is enforced he apprehends that we will lose Mr.
Hentz, "a man whose fellow will not be found by the Trustees in the whole
Atlantic coast." He thinks that another will be lost. "I shall not
be regarded as meaning to threaten the Trustees with the good luck of getting
clear of the writer of this letter. I have had an opportunity within the last
two years of exchanging my present situation for a professorship in a
respectable college in one of our Northern cities with a salary of 2100
Dollars, and, if the allurement of 900 Dollars added to his income, and the
polished society of a great city, is not enough to draw a Yankee away, it is useless to think by the imposition of
new duties to drive him away." While he deemed himself fixed in Chapel
Hill, it is likely that some of his colleagues might accept new and more
congenial duties.

Dr. Mitchell was doubtless sincere in announcing his determination to
stand by the University, because he had no love of money and he looked on North
Carolina as a luxuriant field for botanical, geological, mineralogical and
geographical discoveries, and he had resolved to explore it.

President Caldwell made also an earnest request for the repeal of the
law. He declared that visitation of rooms was the most unpleasant and arduous
duty the Faculty had to perform. "They are exposed to petty tricks and
occult, insulting behavior, and capricious indignities. One of the chief
inconveniences is drenching with water, clean or foul, as they pass the steps
or walk the passages. Such tricks may be performed with great perfection by the
most trifling genius or idle inhabitant of College, who has no other feeling,
but to exult in its dexterity and admirable meanness, and then to pass the jest
through the circle of his companions, thus learning to connect in their
feelings derision and levity, instead of respectful deportment with the person
of a Professor."

The Trustees were partly persuaded by the arguments against
domiciliary visits. A compromise was made. Rooms were allotted to the
professors, and they were requested, not required, to spend a portion of each
day in them, and they were required to make nightly visitations only
occasionally. As late as 1849 certainly, perhaps later, each professor in turn
was expected to visit every room at some time at night during the week assigned
him. It became customary to speak of Dr. Mitchell's week, Prof. Hooper's week,
and so on. Greater tact was shown and insults to the Professors were rarely
offered. When, however, a "spree" was determined on, there was
neither civility nor forbearance shown.

Prof. Mitchell, who possessed greater initiative than any of his
colleagues, about the same time induced the Faculty to recommend several
changes.

Firstly, that the long summer vacation be abolished on account of its
injury to the health of the students, and replaced by one of six weeks,
immediately preceding commencement, as at Harvard and the South Carolina
College. Another of four weeks in November was proposed. A thrifty argument is
urged that the May vacation would enable the summer clothing to be supplied at
home. The change would enable those connected with the University to explore
the State "for Botanical and Geological purposes." The objection
that this arrangement would not be convenient to the members of the Board

appointed to attend the examinations is met by the half
satirical statement that, "after repeated alterations of the time and
repeated attempts to adjust it to the various wishes of the different
individuals, the examinations have been obliged to be carried on for several
years without the presence of a single Trustee until very near its
close." It is suggested that suitable literary gentlemen be employed and
compensated for acting as examiners.

If the change should be made the four weeks' recess to the Seniors
before Commencement should be abolished.

The memorial embodies a complaint that the present Superintendent,
Thomas H. Taylor, had departed from the old custom of paying the Faculty from
time to time sums out of the tuition money, that he retained all his own salary
and otherwise appropriated the funds, leaving little for the members of the
Faculty.

It is suggested that the Librarian should be paid for his
services.

The President's Report shows that he and his Faculty were not yet
emancipated from the interference of the Trustees in small matters of routine.
It is gravely asked that the hiring and employment of servants be allowed them.
They are disturbed about the ordinance about wearing gowns at Commencement. By
whom were they to be furnished? Shall all the Faculty and students be required
to don them? It appears that the Trustees did not insist on the execution of
this mandate.

A question most earnestly pressed by the Senior class was that of a
Senior vacation, i. e. a holiday given to them for one month before
Commencement. Occasionally the Trustees ordered its abolition, but always a
moving petition two or three pages long touched their hearts and met a
favorable response to the prayer for restoration. One signed by William Eaton
and Rufus A. Yancey, son of Bartlett Yancey, is a fair example, committeemen at
other times being such men as Thomas S. Ashe, Rev. J. Haywood Parker, Calvin
Jones, Giles Mebane, J. DeBerniere Hooper. The petition alleges firstly, that
the time was needed for the preparation of Commencement speeches, and secondly,
that as neither suitable cloth, nor a skilled tailor, could be found at Chapel
Hill, the graduates

should be allowed to go home and
there prepare such habiliments as would reflect credit on the University. The
practice lasted until the closing of 1868. Regularly for fifteen or twenty
years after the re-opening in 1875 the Faculty were called on to negative
petitions for its revival.

A riot, in which five students were engaged, shows a roughness of
manners not paralleled now. Becoming angry for some cause with Wm. Barbee, the
ex-Steward, who had been recently in the Legislature, colleague of Willie P.
Mangum, they proceeded one Sunday night to rock his house, crashing the window
panes and even the sashes. Barbee swore out a warrant against the leader and
the others were summoned as witnesses. To use the stilted words of the clerk of
the Faculty, the witnesses "resorted in their minds to such construction
of the oath and of the questions put to them, as in their apprehension relieved
them from the necessity of testifying in relation to their companions, in
consequence of which the protection of society was withheld from the person,
the family and property of one of its citizens." The leader and one other
were dismissed. The remaining three were suspended, two for four and one for
three months.

SOCIAL LIFE OF CHAPEL HILL IN THE TWENTIES.

One of the most popular Chapel Hill belles of this period, very
winning and beautiful, a good singer, accustomed to raise the tunes in church
service, was Miss Sarah Williams Kittrell, whose father removed from Granville
to a home about two miles southwest of the University buildings, where he
carried on a farm and took student boarders. Tradition says that she agreed to
marry a promising Senior, afterwards United States Senator, but the match was
broken off because of his poverty and great distance from Chapel Hill. After he
became famous, he returned by invitation to deliver the annual Commencement
address, and his old boarding house keeper, Mrs. Betsey Nunn, upbraided him for
breaking faith with her favorite Sally Kittrell. Learning that she was living
in Midway, Texas, in her 90th year, Mrs. Goree, aunt of Judge George W.
Kittrell of California, I wrote to her and received in reply a

most sprightly letter, giving her reminiscences of
Chapel Hill society. I add that five of her sons and grandsons were officers in
the Confederate Army, and that during a visit of Miss Winnie Davis to Texas she
rode one hundred miles to pay her respects to the "Daughter of the
Confederacy." The kindly manner in which she speaks of her old flame
indicates that their engagement and its disruption, if true, left no permanent
scar on her happy soul. With her aid and from other sources I endeavor to
depict the life of Chapel Hill in the twenties.

There were few residents of the village, but among them were strong
characters, male and female. Among the men Dr. Caldwell and Dr. Mitchell
overtopped all in learning and influence, while in society Major Henderson and
his four sons, James, William, Pleasant, and Tippoo Saib,
*

*Note.--The hatred of England by our people is shown by their
naming sons after cruel oriental despots, simply because they fought our old
enemy. Thus Davie had a Hyder Ali, Major Henderson a Tippoo Saib, and a
prominent citizen of Edenton a Tippoo Saib Haughton.

all physicians,
were most agreeable and accomplished, "loved and honored by rich and
poor." The leader among the ladies was the wife of the President, a
daughter of James Hogg of Hillsboro, who had moved from girlhood in as polished
society as the United States afforded. There were bright and handsome young
ladies, educated at the female schools of Salem and Oxford, of whom were Betsy
Pannill, and Franky Burton who became the wife of Thomas J. Green, afterwards a
prominent lawyer of Virginia. Wm. Barbee, son of Christopher (or Kit) Barbee,
one of the donors of the University lands, had several daughters, who were very
attractive, one of whom married Ilai Nunn, a skilled violinist, who gave
lessons in dancing; another Jesse Hargrave, a merchant, and a third Dr. B. W.
Cave, a physician of the village.

There was an excellent Sunday School held in Person Hall, called the
Chapel, now the Medical Building. The teachers were Mrs. Caldwell and the wives
of the Professors. The task was memorizing five or six verses of the Bible and
part or whole of a hymn. Four score years afterwards the pious "Mother in
Israel" recalled vividly the moral and educational value of this, one of
our earliest religious institutions for the young.

The village teacher was called "Old Father Hughes," an
Englishman by birth, but devoted to his adopted country, a thorough teacher and
strict disciplinarian, using frequently the rod on boys but gentle to the
girls, who doubtless suffered vicariously when the blows descended on their
brothers and sweethearts. In one end of the school-room at play hours the good
Father added to his petty tuition receipts by the sale of pickled oysters and
ginger cakes, into which traffic went every penny which the children could
raise. After Father Hughes, came Rev. Abner Clopton, a Baptist preacher,
teacher of the Preparatory school of the University.

As might be conjectured from the increase of the income from the
students and in the number of the Faculty, together with a small addition to
their salaries, the village became larger and more modern between 1820 and
1830. The ladies arrayed themselves in finer clothes, improved their houses
with added rooms and with paint, cultivated grass and flowers on their lawns,
frequented the University and Society libraries, rode to hear preaching
sometimes in the neighborhood churches, especially Mount Carmel, induced
services in the University Chapel, prayed fervently but never aloud, at
prayer-meetings, and inaugurated reading clubs.

Notwithstanding this forward movement, luxury was unknown. Modern
children and their parents would regard the mode of life at this period as one
of intolerable hardship. As a rule, to the boys and girls was allowed only one
pair of shoes for the year, which of course implies that naked feet were
fashionable except in freezing weather. Most families kept cows, and on farms
oxen. When these ceased to be producers their end was hastened by the deadly
axe or brain-piercing bullet, the flesh reserved for the table, and the skins
sent to the tannery to be converted into leather. Then one by one the children
placed their feet on the outspread hide under direction of an itinerant
shoemaker, who marked the shape with knife or chalk and made by hand the shoes,
rough but serviceable. Often from want of skill there was a tightness across
the toes or a misplaced protuberance, which caused suffering analogous to that
experienced by a high-caste Chinese girl. Then too there was

a looseness around the ankles which admitted snow, and
the urchin came in from his winter sport with his feet well nigh frozen.

The food was plenteous and palatable. In addition to the poultry, hogs
and beeves, which all raised for themselves, raccoons abounded on the creeks,
opossums and squirrels in the forest, partridges, larks, doves and hares
swarmed in the fields. As winter came on great flocks of wild pigeons darkened
the air, often resting at night in the oak trees, where they were slaughtered
by the wheelbarrow-full. Owing to the abundance of persimmons, the opossums
were so fat that their superabundant grease was used to make smooth the wagon
axles; their fur and that of hares, minks, muskrats and raccoons were fashioned
into winter caps for the boys. Then too there were many fish in the creeks, and
part of the daily task of the pretty black-eyed Sally Kittrell was, accompanied
by a brother, to visit their fish traps and bring in the catch for the
breakfast fry.

The clothing was mostly home-made. Small patches of cotton were
planted, and for some time the seed was picked out by hand. Each child had his
or her task, and after all were finished they were regaled with cider and
apples. After this, lessons for the next day were studied by the light of split
lightwood or pine knot. Tallow candles were a luxury, reserved for a great
occasion, such as a preacher's visit, or a festive gathering.

Mr. Kittrell, the father, imported the first cotton-gin ever seen in
this part of the world, not much larger than a sewing machine. After this there
was more cotton raised in the neighborhood. The date of the importation is not
exactly known, but it was prior to 1833, when he removed to Alabama. The
clothing was woven on the family loom.

Before the advent of the Whitney gin, tobacco was largely raised. The
market was Fayetteville. The hogsheads containing the leaf were placed on
little wheels and thus rolled to Fayetteville, a horse pulling each. The driver
would be absent two or three weeks. His return was hailed with delight, for
each girl expected a calico dress and a pair of shoes, to be worn only on
Sundays.

The course of life was simple and happy. There was no umbrella, but
neither snow nor rain deterred from school and no one was afraid to be wetted.
There was little physic bought, but dyspepsia was never heard of. Trading was
mainly by bartering. Money was scarce, but the family never incurred debt.
Sally Kittrell never had twenty-five cents of her own until she was grown.

Notwithstanding all privations, there was probably more hearty fun
than in our day. Although they danced no germans, and some were not allowed to
dance at all, there were many social gatherings, with just enough work to make
play enjoyable--cotton-pickings, husking bees or corn shuckings,
log-rollings, hog-killings, house-raisings, quiltings, and even spelling bees.
In some of these the girls did not take a hand, but they cheered their beaux to
feats of skill and strength, and after the work was over all joined in games
and pleasant talk, not sparing the piquant anecdote and boisterous laugh.
Conspicuous among all the maidens, doubtless the only survivor of all her
associates, was Sally Kittrell, beautiful, graceful, agreeable, dutiful, pious,
whose memory of Chapel Hill after seventy years is still green, who in her
distant Texas home, radiating loving influences all around, remembers her old
home with so vivid clearness and such tender love that she signs the long
letter written entirely by her own hand--

"In my 90th year, seeing and hearing as well as ever, A daughter of Chapel Hill,

SARAH WILLIAMS GOREE."

The "National Jubilee" was celebrated at Chapel Hill on
the 4th of July, 1826, the semi-centennial of the Declaration of Independence,
with enthusiasm. There was, according to the local chronicle, "the good
humor and cordiality which should ever be the characteristic of Freemen."
There was a procession at eleven o'clock to Person Hall. The famous Declaration
was read by one who had fought for it in the Revolutionary struggle, Major
Henderson. It was properly enunciated, for the gallant Major, a brother of
Judge Richard Henderson, was

selected for thirty-nine
years to be Reading Clerk of the House of Commons on account of his sonorous
voice. The oration was by a young lawyer, William McCauley, graduate of 1813,
son of Matthew McCauley, a donor of the site of the University. He doubtless
bearded the British Lion in the manner fashionable on such occasions. At one
o'clock a dinner was served at Mr. S. B. Alsobrook's hotel, and at night there
was a ball, at which Virginia reels and cotillons were danced to the lively
tunes of Ilai Nunn's violin.

In the autumn of the same year a horse-race was held in a mile of the
village, the principal objects being betting and gambling. The Faculty forbade
the students to attend it. One disobeyed and was suspended therefor. Another
stood afar off and witnessed the running but did not go into the crowd. He was
excused.

There was at all times during the earlier decades of the University
delight among the students to engage in the explosion of gunpowder. There are
numerous complaints of the practice and prosecution of the offenders. The
following grave entry is a sample of the solemn opinions of the Faculty:
"This mode of producing disturbance in the College Buildings for some few
nights past, as it is a method of producing disorder full of evil effects, and
apparently having no other object but to annoy, is highly
reprehensible."

Other by-laws were added to the lengthening roll. The Professors and
Tutors were required to furnish the Trustees present at examinations with the
names of the members of the classes, so that "the Trustees may be enabled
to have their own opinion upon scholarship."

Each Professor and Tutor was required to keep account of the
scholarship, regularity and moral conduct of the members of his class, and
furnish an abstract of the same to the parent, and also to the Board of
Trustees.

The students were not bound to promise more than once obedience to the
rules.

Erasmus D. North was the best scholar and spoke the Salutatory Latin
oration, in the graduating class of 1826,--21 members.

The following were declared equal and next to North: Daniel Moreau
Barringer, who had an oration on Modern Languages; Samuel E. Chapman, the
Valedictory; William Norwood, on Political Economy; Oliver W. Treadwell, on
Classical Literature.

Of these honor men, North was for a short while Professor of Languages
in our University, an Instructor in Yale, and a physician; Barringer, a member
of Congress and Minister to Spain; Chapman, a reputable physician of Newbern;
Treadwell, a Tutor in this University; and Norwood, an Episcopal Doctor of
Divinity over a large congregation in Richmond, Virvinia. Of the others, Clark
became Speaker of the Senate and Governor ex officio in
1861-62.

Of the non-graduates, was Paul C. Cameron, a wealthy planter, State
Senator, active Trustee of the University for twenty-seven years.

In 1827 died John Haywood, one of the charter Trustees of 1789 and
continuously thereafter. He was always a member of the Committee of
Appointments and other like committees, and was one of the most active and
regular in attendance. His popularity in the State is shown by his annual
election as State Treasurer without opposition for forty years (1787-1827), and
by his name being given to a western county and to an eastern town. In
December, 1828, the Trustees, "in consideration of his long continued and
useful services" rendered to the University, granted a scholarship to his
son, William Davie Haywood. There is no record, however, of his entering the
University.

EXERCISES OF 1827--MURPHEY'S ADDRESS.

The multitudinous speeches on the programme of 1826 probably led to
the radical change of 1827. In that year began the series of orations by
eminent men elected by the two Literary Societies alternately. The Dialectic
had the first choice, which

fell on ex-Judge Archibald
Debow Murphey. His address was in the main historical and reminiscent and was
perhaps the last work of one who had done much for his State. His portrait in
the Dialectic Hall, taken at this time, shows that his physical powers were
rapidly waning, but his mind was strong and lucid. A contemporary writer in the
Raleigh Register testified that "the debility of
his body gave an interest to his appearance. Unassuming, yet easy and
insinuating in his address, clear and distinct in his enunciations, perspicuous
and eloquent in his style, he was sustained through a long and eloquent oration
by the admiration and applause of a crowded assembly.--None of his
audience will soon forget their own emotions, or the glow of sympathy imparted
to them by the orator's beautiful remembrance of his friend and patron, the
late Wm. Duffy."

The writer described the exercises as "No longer, as on former
occasions, a monotonous succession of heavy and uninteresting speeches, but a
Literary Banquet, where the different tastes of the audience were gratified by
alternate displays of Oratory and Wit." "We were all particularly
pleased with a little 'ludicro-comico' piece written and (as the
Dramatists say) gotten up by one of the Professors, and called, I think,
'Improvements in Modern Duelling.' It was well delivered Tuesday
evening by five young gentlemen, and exhibited in the most ridiculous attitude
certain late exquisites and proficients in that sublime art." As Dr.
William Hooper was skillful in this kind of writing, conspicuous in his own
address in 1859, entitled "Fifty Years Since," it is evident that
he was the author.

It was at this time that, on motion of Chief Justice Ruffin, the
once-a-month holidays, which had been in vogue for some time, were
discontinued, to the great discontent especially of boys of a smaller growth,
or less studious disposition.

Of these, the best scholar, Lewis, became a wealthy planter of
acknowledged ability, cultivation and influence. A nominanation for Congress was tendered him by his
party, the Democratic, but he declined it. Charles B. Shepard, next to him, was
a member of the State Legislature and a Representative in Congress, dying at
the early age of 37; Lea was a Tutor in the University, then a minister of the
Gospel and President of Jackson College, Tennessee; Nicholson was a lawyer in
Tennessee and held many honorable positions, including the Chief Justiceship of
that State's Supreme Court, and United States Senatorship; Lindsay was an
influential wealthy citizen of Greensboro, president of a bank and member of
the Legislature; Robert A. T. Ridley, of Oxford, became Speaker of the House in
Georgia and a member of Congress; Lewis Thompson was a wealthy and able farmer
of Bertie and prominent in the Legislature; Warren Winslow became a member of
Congress and, as Speaker of the State Senate, acted as Governor in 1854;
Thompson Byrd was a Tutor in the University and a minister of the Gospel;
Absalom A. Barr was also a minister.

Of those who matriculated with these but did not graduate, was Calvin
Graves, a State Representative and Senator, member of the Convention of 1835,
Speaker of the Senate, and as such gave the casting vote for the charter of the
North Carolina Railroad.

The report of the Acting President in 1828 was gloomy. The Faculty
should be nine, whereas four were lacking from this number. North Carolina and
the neighboring States had been explored in vain for competent Tutors, and
Professor Olmsted had been written to for them. The strength of the Professor
of Mathematics, Phillips, was waning under his arduous labors. Professors and
teachers generally are among the most laborious of men. They cannot be
deficient without being infamous, nor can deficiencies and blemishes fail to
expose them to reproach and scorn, if every imperfection be excluded by an
accurate, prompt and comprehensive knowledge of the abstract and scientific
analysis on which they are employed.

The expected successor of Judge Murphey, chosen by the Philanthropic
Society as the orator of the Commencement of

1828, was
Alfred Moore, son of the Judge of the same name. He had been Speaker of the
House of Commons, but preferred private life and the companionship of books to
the storms of a political career. He was one of the early students, who reached
Chapel Hill after the doors of the University were opened in 1795, was faithful
to duty, and afterwards lived a useful and honorable life. It was a great
disappointment to the company that sickness prevented his filling his
engagement. His bust is in Gerrard Hall, the property of the Philanthropic
Society.

The Raleigh Register praises the speeches of
the graduating class as free from the usual bombast and false ornament,
displaying sound sense and strong discrimination. Richard H. Battle was
pronounced the best scholar and had the Latin Salutatory. The next best, Henry
S. Clark, had the Valedictory. Then came John L. Taylor, with the French, and
Thomas P. Johnston, the Natural Philosophy orations.

Henry I. Toole's subject was The Objects of Education; James D. Hall's
was Mental Philosophy; John L. Taylor's French speech was Le Caractere et regne of Louis Quartoze. There was a
debate between Edwin G. Booth and Edwin R. Harriss whether the Southern States
should turn their attention to agriculture. James N. Nesbitt and John P. Gause
discussed whether political parties, not founded on local interests, were
prejudicial to the strength of nations. T. J. Oakes advocated internal
improvements. The Valedictory by Clark was the last address by students.
President Caldwell, as was his habit, then delivered a feeling and wise talk to
the graduates.

Of these, Battle was a life-long invalid, but strong enough to be
Secretary of a Life Insurance Company and Commissioner of War Claims against
the State, by the appointment of Governor Worth. He was often Commissioner (now
Alderman) of the city of Raleigh. He had a strong and original mind. Clark
reached the honor of a seat in Congress. Taylor was a physician of high
standing, and Johnston was a Presbyterian minister and missionary for
twenty-three years.

Of the non-graduates, J. S. Gatlin was a Surgeon in the U. S. Army,
killed in the Seminole war; Rev. Nehemiah Henry Harding,

a Doctor of Divinity in the Presbyterian Church; Richard Caswell Gatlin was an
officer in the United States Army, then a Confederate States Brigadier-General
and Adjutant-General of North Carolina in the darkest hours of the Civil
War.

The honorary degree of Master of Arts (A. M.) was conferred on Wm.
Glascock, M.D., of Virginia, and on John Hill Wheeler, afterwards the author of
Wheeler's History and Wheeler's Reminiscences.

Ethan Allen Andrews remained at the University until 1828, devoting
himself to the close study of the ancient classics, in which he continued for
the rest of his life. In that year he accepted the position of the Professor of
Ancient Languages in the New Haven Gymnasium. A year afterwards he established
the New Haven Young Ladies' Institute, conducting it with success for five
years. He then took charge of a similar institution in Boston. Here he remained
until 1839, when having in conjunction with Soloman Stoddard published a Latin
Grammar, which met with favor among teachers, he returned to his home,
inherited from his father in New Britain, and devoted the rest of his life to
the preparation of school books. The following is a list of his books, besides
the Grammar mentioned: First Latin Book; Latin Reader; Viri
Romæ; Latin Lessons; Synopsis of Latin Grammar; Questions on
the Latin Grammar; Latin Exercises; Key to Latin Exercises; Cæsar's
Commentaries; Sallust; Ovid; Latin Dictionary.

Professor Andrews was intellectually, morally and in manners a very
superior man.

He died March 24, 1858, aged 71 years. His two daughters married
successively Prof. Edward D. Sims, a graduate of the University of North
Carolina in 1824.

TROUBLESOME ESCHEATS.

The Trustees were occasionally embarrassed by petitions from persons
who claimed that they were injured by escheated property vesting in the
University. One Mary Bell stated the pitiable fact that by twenty-five years
hard labor in keeping a public house she and her husband had accumulated some
property, the title of which under the law vested in her husband; that on his

death without heirs half of the property devolved on the
University; that she was sixty years old and could not live on what the statute
allowed her. "I am a poor widow, citizen of a country whose policy and
well regulated government does not need the assistance of property drawn from
old age and infirmity, leaving me to starve, in order to support most valuable
institutions."

The minds of the Trustees were torn by the conflicting ideas of
natural pity and fiduciary duty. They finally concluded to invest the money and
pay the interest to Mrs. Mary Bell so long as she should live.

They seemed to experience no difficulty in deciding another case,
which in our times would be considered hard. A free negro had a daughter, the
slave of another. He bought her, and she then became the mother of a boy. The
woman's father died without kin and intestate. His child and grandchild being
his personal property became the property of the University. They were ordered
to be sold. This sounds hard, but it was proved to the Board that they were in
the lowest stage of poverty and degradation and that it would redound to their
happiness to have a master. It must be remembered that slaves were considered
to be as a rule in a better condition than free negroes.

One of the saddest claims which devolved on the University was that of
Governor Benjamin Smith, the first benefactor. In his old age he became surety
for a man who owed the institution, and the Trustees felt compelled to enforce
payment. There is on record a petition by him for extension of time, which was
granted. The tradition already mentioned that he was imprisoned has a modicum
of truth, but the detention was only for a short while and, as he himself says,
by the hard action of a lawyer, who was his personal enemy. The Trustees
released him as soon as the matter was brought to their attention. It must be
remembered, too, that ex-Governor Smith was hopelessly insolvent, and if the
University had released him from the debt, his other creditors and not himself,
would have reaped the benefit. All his valuable lands on the Cape Fear were
subject to the judgment obtained by the United States to make good the
defalcations of Collector Reid, for whom he was bondsman.

It may be well to give other cases, showing the working of the escheat
law.

At a later date, 1852, a sale of an escheat on behalf of the
University created some local excitement. A lot on which was an old building,
once used as a school house, but then in ruins, had been for years claimed by
no one. The University attorney had it sold. The sum bid was one dollar. A
memorial signed by six leading men of the town stated that the school had been
closed because of sickness from a local cause, which had been removed, and
plans for its revival were renewed. But "there comes an agent of the
University who blasts the almost open blossom of our Hopes, thereby robbing
perhaps many a poor boy from becoming a useful and prominent member of society,
who might have been brilliant lights and added others to the many great
luminaries who claim the University as their Alma Mater, but now left without a
light must mope in darkness and ignorance."

After several pages of similar rhetoric it was stated that the
attorney found a bidder at one dollar, and took a conveyance to himself and
sold the lot to a widow for $80, who proceeded to tear down the house
and cut down the shade trees. Then the widow was threatened with a suit and she
made a moving appeal to the Trustees, stating that she was about to be ruined.
It does not appear that the pathos and eloquence of their petitions effected
their purpose. Indeed, the petitioners seemed to have made the mistake of
applying for a remedy after instead of before the alleged wrong was done. The
attorney (General Singletary) asserted positively that the people generally
applauded his conduct. The amount received by the University was only eight
dollars.

In 1861 the Trustees were notified of a possible windfall of
distributive shares. Judge John M. Dick, a Trustee, while riding the Mountain
Circuit, wrote that Acque to geh, Wage to togutah, Jack Rabbit, To ga kee la
son Betsy, and 330 other Cherokee Indians living in Western North Carolina, had
died since the Treaty of 1836. The attorney of the Indians, William H. Thomas,
took out letters of administration on their estates, giving bond for
$33,400, and collected $54 for each of the deceased,

and it did not appear that any return had been made to
the court. As the University realized nothing from this claim, it is to be
presumed that Colonel Thomas made a satisfactory explanation.

A dissipated Freshman, Spencer Reeves, was dismissed in 1829 for
giving a drinking and card-playing frolic, and following it up on Sunday night
by illuminating his windows with bunches of lighted candles. It is sad to
chronicle that after some years he became so degraded from drink that he slew
his sister for refusing to give him part of her property and was righteously
hung for the crime--the only instance of an alumnus dying on the
gallows.

J. S., who participated in the spree, was saved by his previous good
character and by taking the iron-clad pledges.

At the same time four students were dismissed for going home at the
end of the session without permission which either had been asked for and
refused, or had not been asked for at all.

At the Commencement in 1829, described as very brilliant, a new
feature was introduced. Representatives from the Junior, Sophomore and Freshman
classes competed in declamation.

The orator before the two societies chosen by the Dialectic Society,
was Professor William Hooper, who returned to the University in 1825 as
Professor of Rhetoric and Logic, and three years afterwards was made Professor
of Ancient Languages. The contemporary chronicler says that he was a deep and
severe thinker, as well as profound and eloquent rhetorician.

The best scholar among the graduates was Franklin L. Smith of
Mecklenburg, to whom the Latin Salutatory was assigned. Next was Richard R.
Wall of Rockingham County, with the Valedictory. Then were John Potts Brown, of
Wilmington, with an oration on Natural Philosophy; Sidney X. Johnston on
Geology, and David M. Lees on Ethics. Debates were had between James A.
Johnston and James E. Kerr on the question, "Is the backwardness of North
Carolina due to moral or physical causes?"; between Burton F. Craige and
Osmond F. Long, as to whether Daughters should be educated as well as Sons; and
between Thomas W. Dulany and Wm. Eaton, as to whether Europe was benefitted by
the Independence of Greece, while

Rufus A. Yancey and
Philip W. Alston wrestled with the great problem, whether in the aggregate the
Destinies of Europe were Beneficially Influenced by the French Revolution.
Richard M. Shepard of Newbern discoursed on Modern French Literature.

The best scholar of the fourteen graduates, Smith, died in 1835 with
rising reputation as a lawyer. Wall was a physician of high standing, Brown was
a commission merchant of the firm of DeRosset & Brown of Wilmington, and
Brown & DeRosset of New York. Johnston was a physician and member of the
Convention of 1861. William Eaton was author of a valuable law book,
Attorney-General and Senator from Warren; Craige, who dropped his middle name,
was a Representative in the Congress of the United States and of the
Confederacy, member of the Convention of 1861, and as such offered the
Ordinance of Secession; Alston was an Episcopal minister and a poet.

Among those matriculating with the class, but leaving before
graduation, may be mentioned Wm. Dallas Haywood, for years Mayor of Raleigh;
Henry A. London, a very influential merchant of Pittsboro; Cameron F. MacRae, a
prominent Episcopal minister of this State, of Georgia and lastly of Maryland;
James Bryan Whitfield, State Senator.

The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity fell on Rev. John Robinson
of Poplar Tent, and Rev. John McKamie Wilson of Rocky River, both of Cabarrus.
Besides being pastors of power, they were principals of excellent classical
schools.

The honorary degrees granted were as follows, on the Rev. Adam Empie,
President of William and Mary College, afterwards Rector of a church in
Richmond, Virginia, formerly of Wilmington, N. C., Doctorate of Divinity.

The same degree on Rev. Cornelius Vermeule, of the Presbyterian Church
of New Jersey.

The degree of Master of Arts on Professor James Phillips and Professor
Nicholas Marcellus Hentz, of the University of North Carolina.

On Wednesday, there were original speeches delivered by
representatives of the two Societies.

The best scholar, to whom was given the Latin Salutatory, was
Nathaniel H. McCain. James W. Osborne was next, with a speech on Moral
Philosophy. Next came Cicero Stephens Hawks, whose subject was Influence of
Rewards Bestowed on Distinguished Characters. The fourth in scholarship was
John A. Backhouse, to whom was assigned the Valedictory. The fifth in
scholarship was Richard K. Hill, with a speech on Political Economy, and sixth
was Aaron J. Spivey, whose subject was "The Use and Abuse of
Parliamentary Debates." The next honor men were George G. Lea, who spoke
on the Importance of Liberal Education to all professional men; then Mr. W. L.
Kennedy, on the Influence of Periodical Literature, and lastly came Rawley
Galloway, who discussed Design in the Constitution of Nature. Benjamin F. Terry
and William K. Ruffin debated whether the gold mines, recently discovered in
North Carolina and elsewhere, are attended with greater advantages or
disadvantages to our State and to the Union. There was evidently in the air
dread of inflation of the currency and diversion of labor from other pursuits,
as well of the evils of making haste to be rich.

John H. Edwards and Elisha Stedman, both afterwards physicians,
discussed this question: "Could the United States maintain its
Constitution if the Atlantic Ocean did not separate

her
from Europe?" J. M. Stedman's thesis was whether there could be a
Permanent Government without Education.

McCain removed to Mississippi, and was a highly respected and
successful planter. Backhouse had a strange career. He was of fine promise, was
a Tutor of his Alma Mater after graduation; then studied theology, teaching at
the same time. After being ordained a minister of the Gospel, he was deposed
for conduct unbecoming a minister, and died early. Osborne was a prominent
lawyer and Judge, member of the Legislature and of the Convention of 1861.
Hawks was Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Missouri. Hill was a
teacher of repute in North Carolina and Texas.

At the Commencement of 1830, Hon. John H. Bryan, who changed his home
from Newbern to Raleigh, chosen by the Philanthropic Society, was the orator.
The reporter described his effort as chaste and eloquent.

The report of the President at the annual meeting of the Board in
December, 1827, deplores the falling off in numbers. This was attributed to
three causes: 1st, the establishment of Universities and Colleges in Virginia,
Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia; 2nd, to the financial stress and
unparalleled depreciation in the pecuniary resources of the people; 3rd, vast
efflux of population to the West.

He also informed the Board that the Main Building was in ruins. It had
not been occupied for years. The materials were worthless, the work wretched.
The experiment of employing a Superintendent of Buildings not connected with
the University, at a salary of $20, was unsatisfactory. Prof. Mitchell
assumed the duties.

PANIC OF 1825.--THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPLIED TO.

The financial panic of 1825, with its sequelae, was in truth a fearful
blow to the University. The receipts from Western lands and payments for those
sold were largely cut off. The tuition receipts diminished with the number of
students. The debts to the banks, incurred for building the Old West and work
on the Old East and unfinished Gerrard Hall, were unpaid.

The Trustees thought that turning off Professors would destroy the
prestige of the institution, and therefore borrowed money to meet their
salaries. By 1830 the University seemed on the verge of ruin. Energetic steps
were necessary to avert it. The President of the Board of Trustees called a
special session to consider the matter. It was on the 21st June, 1830, at
Chapel Hill.

On motion of Judge Mangum, a committee of seven were appointed to
draft an address to the Trustees, setting forth the urgent necessity for them
to meet in Raleigh on the 19th of July. Dr. Caldwell was directed to send by
express, that is, a special messenger, a copy to every Trustee within a
reasonable distance of Raleigh, and to the rest by mail.

Considering the difficulties of travel in the hot July days, there was
a very respectable attendance, about one-third of the Trustees. Their names
should be held in remembrance. They were: Governor John Owen, Dr. Caldwell,
Messrs. George E. Badger, Thos. D. Bennehan, John H. Bryan, Duncan Cameron,
James Craven, Wm. Gaston, John D. Hawkins, Louis D. Henry, James Iredell,
Charles Manly, Alfred Moore, Willie P. Mangum, Angus McBryde, Frederick Nash,
Wm. Robards, Thos. Ruffin, Romulus M. Saunders, John Scott, Hugh Waddell, James
Webb, W. McPheeters, D.D. Of these, nine were residents of Raleigh, ten of
Orange, one of Fayetteville, one of Moore County, one of Franklin, one of
Craven, one of Kinston. None except those from Fayetteville, Moore, Franklin,
and Kinston lived more than one day's distance from Raleigh, and they only a
two-days' easy journey. It is possible that Messrs. Gaston and Henry were in
attendance on the Supreme Court. On motion of Mr. Gaston, not then a judge, a
strong committee, Messrs. Iredell, Cameron, Moore, Henry, Bryan, Webb, Robards
(State Treasurer), and Waddell, were appointed to report the debts and
resources of the University, and recommend a plan of relief.

The Committee, through Mr. Iredell, reported the next day the
following statement:

ASSETS.

23 shares State Bank stock ($2,300) if at par.

241 shares Newbern Bank stock ($24,100) if at par.

111 shares Cape Fear Bank stock ($11,100) if at
par.

Judgment in Wake County Court, $2,805.

Interest from July 1, 1829.

Bonds for lands sold in Tennessee, comprising warrants
adjudicated in 1820 and 1822, the Resolution warrants, and Smith and Gerrard
lands. The whole estimated in 1820 and 1822, to be worth $240,642.
Probably not worth so much.

DEBTS.

Decree for Jacques le Gorde, $1,230.83; interest
from

July 1, 1828, say, in all

$1,405.11

Balance due Faculty

1,158.

Due State Bank

17,524.24

Due Newbern Bank

6,978.12

Due Cape Fear Bank

6,396.

Due United States Bank

4,057.26

Total debts

$37,518.73

Average annual expenses

$8,200.

Tuition receipts (82 students)

2,304.

Deficiency

$5,896.

Average annual receipts from western lands the last four years, about
$6,000, subject to large deductions for expenses of collection.

The Committee recommended:

1. That the judgment in Wake Court be collected and applied to the Le
Gorde debt and that to the Faculty.

2. The Cape Fear Bank will accept their own stock at 80 per cent. It
is recommended that payment be made in this manner.

3. That 5 shares of Cape Fear stock be sold at not less than 75 cents
in the dollar and proceeds applied to the U. S. Bank debt.

4. That 26 shares of State Bank stock be paid to that Bank at 75
cents, if they will be received at that price, which is probable.

5. That 26 shares of Cape Fear Bank stock be sold at not less than 75
cents in the dollar and the proceeds paid to the State Bank.

6. As the value of Bank of Newbern stock is uncertain, none should be
sold at present.

7. After these payments the debts will be as follows:

To the Bank of Newbern

$6,978.12

To the U. S. Bank, about

3,682.26

To the State Bank

13,849.24

Total

$24,509.62

And the Trustees will have 241 shares of Newbern Bank stock.
Estimating this at 60 cents in the dollar, its supposed value, the University
will owe about $10,000. Probably this might be paid by receipts of
western lands in two or three years, but it is not certain that the Banks will
wait so long. Besides, nearly $6,000 annual deficiency in the salaries
of the Faculty will be due.

The Committee therefore recommended that the General Assembly be
memorialized for aid until the lands in Tennessee can be sold.

The report was concurred in, and Messrs. Ruffin, Cameron, and Gaston
were appointed to prepare and present the special memorial to the Legislature
as was recommended. It was drawn by Chief Justice Ruffin, and, like his
writings generally, is very thorough, strong, and comprehensive. It sketched
the action by the Legislature towards the University from 1789, and showed that
the only grant then of value that was available for its support arose from the
Tennessee lands, which came from the escheated warrants vested in the
institution. According to the last report of the agent, there were 106,051
acres, including the 20,000 acres given by Governor Smith and about 9,000 acres
by Major Gerrard. Sales had been made and bonds taken to the amount of
$71,081.24. It was deemed unwise to press the sales of more lands or the
collection of these bonds at present, because of the financial condition of the
country, and because the lapse of time is strengthening the University titles,
which so many are ready to attack or weaken in courts and in the Legislature.
The value of the unsold lands was estimated eight years ago at $240,642,
but that is probably high.

The actual cost of the buildings belonging to the University was
$95,537.41, besides annual outlays for repairs. The Library

and apparatus cost about $10,000, and are still
worth about that sum. Part of the debt arose from the necessity of providing
accommodations for the large number of students, from 150 to 200, whose health
was endangered by overcrowding. The money was borrowed from banks in which the
University owned stock to the amount of $37,500, for which par was paid.
The total debt amounted to $37,518.73. We now see that the stock should
have been sold, instead of contracting loans on pledge of the same, but no one
could foresee the rapid decline in its market value, and in the dividends. The
most careful and astute investors, and successive Legislatures, made the same
blunder. By the sales of stock at 75 and 80 recently ordered by the Board, the
debt has been reduced to $20,124.55. The Treasurer has on hand
$3,143.21, but of that, $2,790 is payable to the Faculty for
their salaries. There remains 241 shares in the Bank of Newbern, but they have
no market value, and the bank is not paying dividends.

With ample resources in prospect, the actual income is nearly nothing.
The tuition fees have been fixed at $30 per annum, so as to meet the
wants of people of limited means. At the enlargement of the institution, nearly
200 students paid an amount sufficient to meet the annual expenses. From
various causes, chiefly the general distress for money, and the erection of
well-endowed colleges and schools, the number is diminished to about 80. The
Faculty consists of a President at a salary of $1,600, four Professors
at $1,400 each, and two Tutors at $400 each. The expenses may be
stated as follows:

Salaries of the Faculty

$7,360.

Secretaries, Treasurer, Superintendent and incidentals

840.

Interest upon the debt

1,207.47

Total

$9,407.47

Deduct probable tuition fees

2,400.

Deficit

$7,007.47

If the State will assume the debt to the banks, the deficit will be
$5,800.

alarming deficiency. It would not comport with the
dignity of the State to ask individuals to support a public institution, nor
would such an appeal be successful. The Faculty cannot be reduced without
seriously impairing the efficiency of the instruction and the prestige of the
institution. "By a slight exertion of the fostering care of the
Legislature, this Institution, demanded as well by the wishes as the welfare of
the people, may be revived. In the course of three or four years at the
furtherest, the decision as to its right to escheated land in Tennessee will be
rendered. If favorable, the prosperity of the University will be fixed beyond
the reach of mischance. If unfavorable, it must be, like the colleges of some
of our sister States, wholly dependent on annual appropriations, or close its
doors."

The memorialists venture to suggest that the General Assembly shall
pay the debt, and in addition grant a small appropriation for three or four
years, or else apply some of the bank stock owned by the State to the
extinction of the debt. If neither plan meets with favor, "it may then be
considered, whether it be wise and politic that the public should suffer its
own child and favorite Seminary to be overwhelmed by the interest accruing on
this large debt whilst a Literary Fund of a greater amount is lying in the
vaults of the Treasury, or deposited in the banks for their own use and
emolument." It is suggested that a loan, without interest, be granted
from this Fund, enough to discharge the debt, say $21,000, and in
addition for three or four years supply the deficiency in the annual receipts
heretofore mentioned. But the Trustees will be compelled to accept a loan even
on the most disadvantageous terms, as they cannot meet the interest on their
debt, much less the instalments required by the Act of 1829 to be
paid."

As Chief Justice Ruffin was considered one of the ablest lawyers, not
only in this State, but in the Union, I give in his own language his opinion of
the value of higher education.

"Your memorialists refrain from indulging in extended
reflections, though obviously growing out of the occasion, upon the vast
importance of education; its influence upon individual happiness; its tendency
to enlighten and purify the mind; to chasten and correct the evil passions and
propensities of our

nature, and soften the affections;
to enlarge the sphere of human action and promote enterprise and the arts;
multiply useful men and increase their capacity for usefulness; and in a
popular government to inform the community at large, and dispose them to
cherish, and qualify them to defend, their free institutions. All these
considerations address themselves so powerfully and directly to the
understanding, that every man, and much more every member of your honorable
body, must estimate its importance highly. In North Carolina every person, who
is old enough to remember when the University was not, must have observed, and
cannot but testify to the effects most salutary of its
establishment."

The memorial then shows that the University had graduated more than
460 of her sons, and about the same number had attended her instruction without
waiting to obtain degrees. "These seven or eight hundred alumni now fill
with honor to themselves and to the College, and with usefulness to their
country, most of her posts of distinction, trust, labor and responsibility, in
her Legislatures, her Judiciary, her professions, her schools, besides adding
greatly to the mass of general information caught from them in the intercourse
of Society and diffused through the body of our citizens. Many, who have sought
employment and homes in distant sections of the Union, make us favorably known
in sister States, adorn our character and their own, and, cherishing a grateful
memory of the land of their birth, thank God, that though they do not live in
North Carolina, they were born on her soil, and were educated under her
patronage."

Then follows a panegyric on the Professors and Tutors. "They are
able teachers, discreet governors, and kind friends of their pupils." The
praises of Dr. Caldwell are so peculiarly adulatory as to suggest that, in the
opinion of the Chief Justice, the recently earned popularity of the good
Doctor, on account of his Carlton letters, falling in with the general
enthusiasm for building railroads, would win scores of votes for the
institution, of which he was well-nigh the personification. After a glowing
tribute to his character and pre-eminent services, his learning,

piety, to his qualifications eminently suited and always
equal to his responsible station, to his enthusiasm for education, and the love
and respect of his pupils, to his repeated refusals of more lucrative positions
elsewhere, it is added, "The mind revolts from the thought that this
venerable and venerated Apostle of Science and Virtue, should in the natural
life of his frail body survive the child of his mental labors for thirty-four
years, that he should now be compelled to abandon the scenes of his studies and
usefulness through such a long course of time, and seek another abode, after
witnessing the downfall and ruin of that institution, which has thus engaged
his individual attention and from which he has shed abroad through the land the
lights of knowledge, of science, social duty, public virtue, private probity,
and Christian piety."

The memorial was adopted, and Governor Owen, as President of the
Board, was requested to communicate it to the General Assembly. Messrs.
Cameron, Henry, and Saunders were appointed to confer with the Select Joint
Committee of the General Assembly, with full power to act in place of the Board
in regard to financial relief.

I now give the action of the General Assembly. The part of the
Governor's message transmitting the memorial of the Trustees, was in the Senate
referred to a select committee, consisting of Senators Speight, Askew, Hill,
Jones, Ward, Kerr, McKay, and Williams of Franklin. This committee, on December
24, 1830, made its report, accompanied by a bill without the second provision
hereinafter recited, giving the Legislature full power over the University
charter, property and instruction. That was inserted on motion of James J.
McKay, Senator from Bladen, afterwards Representative in Congress, a
Jeffersonian Democrat, who probably had constitutional scruples about the
State's aiding any institution not under its entire control. The amendment was
adopted by a vote of 35 against 26, those who voted in the negative being more
ardent friends of the University. The names of these minority Senators were
George O. Askew of Bertie, David W. Borden of Carteret, Abraham Brower of
Randolph, Pinckney Caldwell of Iredell, Samuel Davenport of Washington, John M.
Dick of Guilford, Edward

After the adoption of the amendment, the bill passed the Senate by a
vote of 40 to 19, the peculiar friends of the University with the majority,
except Senators Dick, Hill, Lindsay, Marshall, Perkins, Ramsey, Sherard,
Skinner, and Wilder. Meares was absent. Of those who refused to accept the
amendment, Senators Dick, Meares, Spaight were alumni. One alumnus, Charles L.
Hinton of Wake, voted in favor of the amendment. All the Senate Committee were
against it except McKay of Bladen and James Kerr of Caswell.

The bill passed the House by 70 to 48. It is evident that the
hostility of the Trustees was not foreseen, because we find with the majority
such friends of the University as Evan Alexander, Daniel M. Barringer, John
Bragg, Joseph A. Hill, Geo. C. Mendenhall, Spencer O'Brien, Thomas McGehee,
Council Wooten, Jonathan Worth, John H. Wheeler, Richard Allison, Bartlett
Shipp, Dr. Thomas Hill.

Thus in response to the eloquent, wise and feeling memorial of the
Trustees, the General Assembly fed its child with a stone of striking
angularity and hardness. The Literary Board was required to lend the University
$25,000 for five years, with interest from date, on the following
conditions:

First, that the sum loaned should be a lien on all the University
property, real and personal, in possession and to be acquired. The Trustees
should signify in writing their assent to this lien.

Second, the Trustees must agree that the Legislature might thereafter
modify or alter the charter of the institution, so as to assume to the State
its management, and the possession and disposition of all property, real and
personal.

Third, the Trustees must discharge all debts having a lien on
University property out of the proceeds of this loan.

At that time it was thought that the University was protected by the
decision of the United States Supreme Court in Dartmouth College vs. Woodward,
against the encroachments of the Legislature without the consent of the
Trustees. At this day, however, under the State's constitutions of 1868 and
1876, and the decisions of the Circuit Court of the United States and of this
State in analogous cases, it is settled that the University is a State
institution under legislative control. The Trustees of 1831, indignant at being
called on to turn over the University to the Legislature, and encouraged by a
prospective remittance of $7,500 from Tennessee, unanimously rejected
the loan. For immediate needs they borrowed $4,000 from the Branch Bank
of the United States at Fayetteville.

Such was the pressure of the debt, that Col. Polk and Messrs. James
Mebane and James Webb, were appointed a committee to offer for sale the
unimproved lands of the University around Chapel Hill. If this had been done we
would now have blasted rocky old fields in the place of our beautiful
forest--with all the purchase-money gone. A small sum was realized by the
sale of the Preparatory School Acre. The school had been closed for over ten
years.

An abortive effort was made to obtain funds by subscription for
finishing the new Chapel, begun years before. A committee was raised, but no
funds.

THE OBSERVATORY.

President Caldwell had always been fond of the Science of Astronomy.
It was on this account that, in 1813, as I have shown, he was called on to be
the scientific expert on the part of North Carolina in running the South
Carolina boundary line. He built on the top of his dwelling a platform, on
which he would take the Seniors in squads of three and four, and point out to
them the heavenly bodies. He erected in his garden a sun dial, which stood
until the invasion of the Federal cavalry. He also built two pillars, still
standing, covered with vines, their eastern and western faces accurately
showing the true North and south line in his day.

In 1830 he determined to erect a building in which he could use the
astronomical instruments bought by him in London. It was finished in 1831, and
he is thus entitled to the credit of inaugurating the first observatory
connected with an institution of learning in America, that of Professor Hopkins
at Williams College being in 1836. Dr. Caldwell's building was on the highest
summit of a hill north of the Raleigh road, near the village graveyard. The
structure was about twenty feet square, without a portico or entry hall, and
with a window in each of its eastern and western faces. Through the center was
a pillar of masonry on its own foundation, and on a circular disk on the top
was the Altitude and Azimuth instrument. A slit through the northern and
southern faces and through the flat top afforded a range of 180 degrees for the
Transit. The Altitude and Azimuth Telescope stood on a circular disk of
sandstone, which capped the pillar. It was protected from the weather by a
wooden structure, drawn backwards and forwards on a railway by a windlass and
rope. The adjacent trees were felled so as to command a view of the horizon.
The instruments used were a Meridian Transit Telescope, made by Simms of
London, an Altitude and Azimuth Telescope, also by Simms, a Telescope for
observations on the earth and sky, Dolland of London, an Astronomical clock,
with a Mercurial Pendulum, by Molineux. Besides these, which were stationary,
there were a sextant, by Wilkinson of London, a portable Reflecting Circle, by
Harris of London, and a Hadley's quadrant. With the Astronomical clock and the
Transit, President Caldwell, assisted by Professors Mitchell and Phillips,
obtained the longitude and latitude of the South Building, 79° 17' W.
and 35° 54' 21" N. This calculation was made in the
mathematical room in the South Building in the second story opposite the
well.

Observations were made by President Caldwell and Dr. Mitchell and the
older Dr. Phillips for the longitude and latitude of various places, on
Eclipses and on Comets and other celestial phenomena. These observations have
been lost.

This institution had a short life. The building was of bad materials
and fell rapidly to decay. After the death of Dr. Caldwell it became necessary
to remove the instruments. In

1838 the building was
destroyed by fire, tradition says, kindled by a student. The sound bricks were
used to build a kitchen for President Swain on the lot next to the Episcopal
Church. The site of the old Observatory is easily recognized by the fragmentary
bats and the cedars clustering around the shrunken basement.

President Caldwell, while he was averse to debt and kept free from it,
had no propensity to accumulate money. He built the Observatory out of his own
funds, at a cost of $430.29½. The Trustees, however, reimbursed
him a few days before his death.

After removal from the Observatory, most of the instruments were for
years unused. Dr. James Phillips and his son, Dr. Charles, thought that the
interior of the dust-covered telescope was a safe place for hiding valuables
from the incoming Federal soldiers. They accordingly deposited their watches
within its recesses. They underestimated the keen-eyed seekers for hidden
treasures. But the commanding officer was in love with the President's
daughter, and forced the lucky finders to disgorge.

MRS. ROYALL.

In this period an American woman, said to have lived among the Indians
as a captive, coarse and ignorant, Mrs. Anne Royall by name, was the authoress
of "Sketches of History, Life, Manners, in the United States, by a
Traveller." In 1830 was published her "Southern Tour, or Second
Series of the Black Book." She visited Chapel Hill the preceding year and
evidently was avoided by the Faculty ladies, as her pen was dipped into gall
when she wrote of her visit. Her first impression was unpleasant, as the inn
keeper's lady met her with the question, "have you no man with
you?" The University, she said, was in a most delightful situation,
sitting upon an eminence, in the midst of a handsome grove, but, to the
disgrace of the State, is under the influence of a woman, the President's wife.
She is ruled by priests, the priests are ruled by money, and she rules the
University. The institution, which cost so much money, is under the dominion of
"these she wild cats, a Priest loving woman, fleecing the last cent of
pocket money from the innocent, unsuspecting young men. Meantime they are ruled
by a rod of

iron by this she wolf. Not a step dare the
hen-pecked President take without apprising this tyrannical woman." As
Mrs. Royall was leaving Chapel Hill, a tall, genteel young man stepped into the
stage. He had been dismissed, she said, for "smiling in church."
The students, fine, manly looking young men, came to take leave of the
dismissed man. In the opinion of Mrs. Royall, he deserved a statue, and
"so would any man who would raise his voice against such hypocrites and
besotted fools." "This young gentleman possessed more virtue and
honor than the whole posse of the Faculty, with Madam President to
boot."

The truth is, that the student was dismissed for bad behaviour at the
preaching in the village chapel on Sunday night, before the arrival of the
preacher. There was much noise, vociferation, laughter, and tumult. "The
house was turned into a scene of wild riot." After the arrival of a
member of the Faculty, he persisted in ill-behaviour, conspicuously
disregarding the order of the place, was directed to leave the house, but
refused to obey. On the next morning at Prayers he interrupted the prayer by
scraping with his feet. He had repeatedly been guilty of disorder, and had
incurred the censure of the Faculty.

Mrs. Royall was either a malicious, untruthful woman, or demented.
Mrs. Caldwell was a woman of talent, of polished manners, and excellent heart.
She naturally dominated and gave tone to the village society, but her husband
was distinguished for his independence of character and inflexible will.
Neither she nor any other human influence could dominate or lead him. I quote
from the bitterness of the slighted vanity of Mrs. Royall, because, although
long ago consigned to oblivion, her book was once the theme of amused
conversation. Her vitriolic satire on Chapel Hill ladies is really a high
tribute to their conservative feminine virtues. Notoriety-seeking,
"mannish" females could get no countenance from them.

After leaving North Carolina, Mrs. Royall sojourned in Washington
City, where she engaged in writing vituperative books and edited a "Paul
Pry" newspaper, so full of scandal that she was arraigned and convicted
of the crime of being a common scold--"communis
rixatrix." She was sentenced to

the old
common law punishment of being ducked in the Potomac, but, modern ideas being
against the infliction of this primitive rough penalty on a woman, the Court
was induced to substitute a pecuniary fine.

Of the Class of 1831, numbering 15, the best in scholarship was John
DeBerniere Hooper, who spoke the Latin. The Valedictory was the next highest,
by Calvin Jones, of Tennessee. Next to him was Jacob Thompson. His subject was,
"Inducements to the men of talents to improve their powers." Then
was Lemuel B. Powell, who spoke on "National Pride"; then Giles
Mebane, on the Most Effectual Means of Promoting National Wealth, and Thomas J.
Pitchford, on the Advantages Derived from the Study of Natural History. Then
came John L. Hargrove, on the Influence of America on the Future of Europe;
James O. Stedman, on Christianity as a Civilizer; John H. Haughton, on
Christianity and Civil Liberty; Thomas F. Jones, on the Intellect of the North
American Indians; Samuel B. Stephens, on the Fine Arts; and Thomas P.
Armstrong, on the great question, "Ought the Legislature to Provide for
Public Liberal Education?"; Samuel S. Biddle, on the effect of
multiplying Colleges on Education; Michael W. Holt, on the Community of
Interests between North and South American Republics. After this, the following
subjects were debated: "Is the Salic law correct in principle and
practice?", by Charles C. Wilson and Thomas W. Harris; "Are
Honorary Distinctions in College expedient?", by Stephen S. Sorsby and
Thomas E. Taylor;

"Is the character of the
Athenians or Spartans more worthy of admiration?", by George Hairston and
Thomas E. Taylor; "Can a Christian properly become a Soldier by
profession?", by Thomas W. Harris and Rufus M. Roseborough; "Would
it be expedient for the United States to employ Exploring Expeditions for the
advancement of Science?", by Thomas B. Hill and Richard H. Smith;
"Is National Calumny properly an Occasion of War by the Law of
Nations?", Cadwallader Jones, Stephen S. Sorsby and Samuel A.
Williams.

These are the most pretentious Commencement Day exercises on record.
All had places on the programme except Doak and Grant, probably absent. Some
spoke twice, as seen above.

The honor men did well in after life. Hooper was Tutor and then
Professor successively of Latin, of Modern Languages, and of Greek and French
in the University. Jones was a Professor in the University of Alabama and
Chancellor of West Tennessee. Thompson was Tutor, lawyer, Congressman from
Mississippi, Governor, Secretary of the Interior, Inspector-General of the
Confederate States. Powell was a physician of reputation. Giles Mebane was an
able and upright member of the Legislature, President of the Senate; Thomas J.
Pitchford a prominent physician and State Senator.

Among other strong men was James Grant, a Judge of the Superior Court
of Iowa and a benefactor of the University.

The only honorary degree was that of Master of Arts, conferred on John
Tate, of North Carolina.

The Oration before the two Societies was delivered by Rev. Wm. Mercer
Green, Rector of the Episcopal Church in Hillsboro, of the Dialectic Society, a
graduate of 1818.

NORTH CAROLINA INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION.

During the week, on the 22d of June, 1831, an organization was made of
the friends of education into an association called "The North Carolina
Institute of Education." A constitution and by-laws were adopted on
motion of Benjamin M. Smith of Milton, who explained the objects of the
Association in a highly interesting and appropriate address. Doctor Simmons J.
Baker, of Martin, was unanimously elected President, and Wm. McPheeters,

Lectures were appointed to be given at the Commencement of 1832, as
follows: On Imperfections in "Teaching in Primary Schools," by
Prof. Wm. Hooper; on "Elocution, with Particular Reference to
Reading," by H. S. Ellenwood, of Hillsboro; on "Lyceums and Similar
Institutions," by James D. Johnson, of Oxford. The subject selected for
discussion was, "The Period Necessary for Preparing for
College."

The Corresponding Secretary was directed to obtain for the Institute
the "Annals of Education," and five copies of the
"Educational Reporter," afterwards reduced to one copy.

TEMPERANCE SOCIETY--DR. MITCHELL'S ADDRESS.

In the summer of 1829, some of the students formed themselves into a
Temperance Society. It had a marked effect in causing a decline in the drinking
of spirituous liquors. In 1831, Professor Mitchell delivered a very able
discourse before the University at the request of the Society. It was printed,
and the strength of his argument and the excellence of the style extended the
reputation of the speaker. By the kindness of a friend, I have a copy, and
quote a few sentences which vividly portray the downward career of the
drunkard.

"It seems hardly necessary to state in detail how fatal are
habits of Intemperance to the poor wretch who has become their victim. Standing
perhaps high in the society of which he is a member, he finds the respect with
which an antecedent life of virtue, temperance, and integrity have been
rewarded, passing silently away, like the snows of spring beneath the influence
of the sun. The old, whose conduct used to show how highly they prized his
friendship, and the young, who were once so eager to exhibit evidence of their
esteem and regard, now pass

him by without more than a
cold and distant salutation. His opinions no longer have the same weight in
cases of doubt and perplexity. His neighbors think that a cloud has settled
down upon his judgment, and darkened that mental eye once so clear and keen. *
* * His affairs are involved in confusion and disorder, and either his schemes
are not laid with his usual sagacity, or the turns of accident or misfortune
are very much against him. He finds that he has lost a portion of his power for
both physical and mental exertion. His family appear melancholy and dejected,
and it is in vain that he wakes up all his wit and tries to revive their
drooping spirit. They used to meet him when he returned from a distance with
countenances lighted up with smiles and welcome home the protector, husband,
friend, and father. But the time comes at length when his wife and children no
longer rejoice at his return, but, as he approaches they stand silent; their
hearts wrung with unuttered sorrow, and turn away their eyes and refuse to look
upon the ruin and degradation of what was once so venerable and lovely. Oh, if
there be one thing beneath the circuit of the sky, of which there is any hope
that it will awaken the strong feelings of nature that are either asleep or
dead within him, and rouse him to one last despairing effort to shake off his
chains and regain his freedom, it is that distress of his family. But often, as
we know, even that is unavailing. The voice of the strong appetite he has
created is stronger than the voice of nature, and the mansion that has hitherto
been the abode of love and peace, becomes the very scene of his excesses, and
when his brain is heated to frenzy, the arm of violence is perhaps raised
against a woman--the wife of his bosom, or against those children, who
should be the object of his tenderest love. But why pursue the melancholy
story, the particulars of which from the unhappy frequency of their occurrence,
are but too well known to us all? Why speak of the ruin of his credit, the
wasting of his property, the quarrels (with his best friends, too,) into which
he is betrayed, when petulant and ill-natured through the effect of
intoxication? His friends deriving no pleasure from his society, at length
forsake him. His estate is squandered, and his children (because the wealth
that should have come down to

them from their ancestors,
is intercepted in its descent by the author of their being, whom the law of
nature that binds even the brute creation, required to be their friend and
protector), are driven away to seek their fortune in some foreign land or
distant shore.

"The poor wretch himself feels at length the access of those
diseases, of which he has so long been sowing the seeds. The poison he has for
years been taking into his system operates decisively. He sinks beneath a
complicated load of disorders and infirmities--shall I say into a late or
an early grave? An early grave, inasmuch as he has but just reached the age
when the sober and temperate part of mankind are in their prime--a late
one also, for he has long since ceased to be useful in the world, and ceased
therefore to execute the office for which God created him, and for which his
life was prolonged from day to day."

"If the youth of a country be neglected, no matter what may be
its physical advantages, or the form of its government, its soil may be fertile
as the border of the Nile, its government monarchical, aristocratical, or
democratical, as you choose, that country, taken as a whole, will be poor and
wretched. * * * We may borrow the pen of Draco, and write the statute book from
end to end in letters of blood; we may crown the summit of every mountain and
hill with a gibbet and a prison--amidst all that apparatus of law and
justice, vice will present herself with a bold and unblushing countenance in
the most public places, and laugh the lawgiver and judge to scorn."

"The moral and religious education of the children of the
drunkard must be miserably neglected. How will he dare to assemble his children
about him to unfold and explain to them the distinctions between good and evil,
vice and virtue, with their eternal sanctions--recommend the one and warn
them to avoid the other--he whose conduct is an open violation of the laws
and morality and religion every day he lives?"

"The mind in ancient days did not demand the application of
stimulants more than the body. The orators of Greece and Rome needed not those
aids to eloquence, which our modern statesmen and declaimers employ. To the
poet, the fervor of his own bosom--to the philosopher the regular and
natural operation

of his own vigorous and unclouded
mind, were fully sufficient for the production of those masterpieces of taste
and wisdom which have been the admiration of every following age. The lips of
Moses, the Jewish lawgiver--of David, the sweet singer of Israel--of
the holy and sublime Isaiah--of the Redeemer of mankind, were never
polluted by the products of distillation."

These extracts are given because Professor Mitchell is known to have
been a many-sided man in science, but it is less known that he possessed no
little literary ability. As said elsewhere, his reputation as a writer of
sermons and addresses was obscured by his monotonous and awkward delivery. It
is worthy of notice that he believed that the ancients did not use--did
not know how to make--distilled spirits, that the "strong
drinks" mentioned in the Bible, meant the products of simple fermentation
from honey, grain and substances other than grapes, and neither
"wine" nor strong drink were much stronger than cider or ale. He
states that our whiskey, brandy and other liquors did not influence the morals
and happiness of mankind earlier than the end of the reign of James I. of
England.

THE DROMGOOLE MYTH.

There is a notable tradition dating from this year. Peter Dromgoole of
Virginia came to enter the University in 1831. He was fond of card-playing and
of wild company. He was not a matriculate. He took offence at a remark of one
of the professors and refused to submit to further examination. After a few
days he disappeared and was never heard of afterwards. A story was started that
he was killed in a duel and his body carefully concealed. His uncle, Hon.
George C. Dromgoole, one of our alumni, an able lawyer, came to Chapel Hill and
for weeks investigated the case. It is said that he was satisfied that there
was no truth in the rumor. The room-mate of Peter, a very reputable man, Mr.
John Buxton Williams, of Warren County, in a letter to the press, stated that
he never heard of Peter's getting into a quarrel, and that he started from
Chapel Hill in a public stage. I conclude that he was ashamed to go home,
journeyed to what was then the turbulent Southwest, and

was killed in a brawl or assassinated. A modern tradition originating within my
knowledge places the scene of his fatal duel on Piney Prospect, and asserts
that he was buried under a rounded rock on its summit. Certain stains of iron
in the rock are pointed out as drops of his blood, and a still later story is
that his sweetheart, Miss Fanny, hurried to stop the combat, arrived too late,
went into rapid loss of reason and health, and was buried by his side. The
spring at the base of the hill, where the lovers are said to have sat and
cooed, bears the name of Miss Fanny's Spring. This last story is embodied in a
short poem of merit by Mr. L. B. Hamberlin, an Instructor of Expression in this
University, and that of Texas, and published in our University Magazine of 1892.

The persistency of belief in student circles in the Dromgoole legend
and its accretions throws light on the growth of similar legends elsewhere and
in the times of old. It doubtless suggested to Edwin Fuller in his novel of
Sea-Gift to create a fatal duel in which De Vare was killed. Some credulous
young people unblushingly avow their belief that the rains and snows of
three-quarters of a century have not washed out Dromgoole's blood spots on a
rounded granite rock.

GASTON'S ADDRESS.

At the Commencement of 1832 the address before the two Societies was
delivered by Hon. William Gaston, chosen by the Philanthropic Society. It met
with public favor to a most extraordinary degree. It ran through four editions,
the first of 5,000, published by the Philanthropic Society, a second shortly
afterwards by LaGrange College. Alabama, a third by Mr. Thomas W. Whyte at
Richmond, Virginia, with a strong commendation by Chief Justice Marshall. It
was also published in part in various periodicals and entire in the
North Carolina University Magazine of 1844. To satisfy
the popular demand, the two Societies in 1849 jointly issued a new edition.

It is remarkable that when the public mind was inflamed peculiarly on
account of the bloody insurrection of Nat Turner in the preceding year the
orator should have frankly avowed himself an advocate of the ultimate abolition
of slavery, and that the

audience cheered the utterance.
"Disguise the truth as we may," he said, "and throw the blame
where we will, it is Slavery which, more than any other cause, keeps us back in
the career of improvement. It stifles industry and represses
enterprise--it is fatal to economy and providence--it discourages
skill--it impairs our strength as a community, and poisons morals at the
fountain head." This bold language did not weaken his standing in the
State. Six months afterwards, although a Roman Catholic, and the Constitution
contained a clause inhibiting men of that faith from holding office, he was, by
the General Assembly, elected a Supreme Court Judge. He accepted the office,
being persuaded that the clause was contrary to the Declaration of Rights and
therefore void. One cause of the popularity of the address was the eloquent
denunciation of Disunion and praise of the Constitution, at a time when South
Carolina threatened Nullification and many openly advocated Secession.

The Graduating Class had 36 members and was notable for merit. The
honors were as follows: The best, Thomas L. Clingman, who had the Latin
Salutatory. Next, John Haywood Parker, who had the Valedictory. Thomas S. Ashe,
speaking on the Application of Steam to the Arts, being third, and James C.
Dobbin, on Mental Philosophy, being fourth.

As a rule, the members were successful in after life. Of the honor
men, Clingman was a Representative in Congress, and a Senator, also prominent
in State legislation. He was, moreover, a Brigadier General of the Confederate
States. Parker was an Episcopal clergyman of power; Ashe was a Senator of the
Confederate States and Justice of the Supreme Court of this State. Dobbin was
an able member of the State Legislature and Secretary of the Navy. To this
class belonged Richard H. Smith, a sound lawyer, wise member of the
Legislature, and Delegate to the General Conventions of the Episcopal Church;
Cadwallader Jones, Solicitor for his Circuit and Colonel in the Confederate
army, and John H. Haughton, a very able lawyer, and efficient in the General
Assembly in shaping the legislation of the State.

Strudwick, of Hillsboro. Of the matriculates of 1832,
Charles G. Nelms, of Anson County, after reaching the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel, lost his life in the Civil War.

The honorary degree of Master of Arts was granted to Rev. Jarvis Barry
Buxton, Rector of the Episcopal Church of Fayetteville, and Rev. Samuel Lyle
Graham, of Virginia.

The second meeting of the North Carolina Institute of Education was on
June 19, 1832. Mr. Alfred Moore delivered the Annual Address according to
appointment. Rev. Dr. Wm. McPheeters and Messrs. Wm. Hooper and Wm. J. Bingham
were appointed a Committee to report on questions and subjects for the next
Commencement. Mr. James Grant, afterwards Judge Grant of Iowa, moved that a
Committee be appointed to memorialize the Legislature on the subject of Popular
Education. The motion was carried, and Wm. Gaston, Frederick Nash and David L.
Swain were appointed.

The Institute adjourned until 3 o'clock, at which time was heard the
lecture on Primary Schools by Prof. Wm. Hooper. It met with such favor that it
was published in pamphlet form. He began by stating that good schools cannot
abound in communities where all are engaged in clearing and subduing new lands.
Then his first point was that the imperfections of our schools were due to the
circumstances of our youth, raised amid active toil and hunting and fishing,
and the slack discipline of parents. He was noted for his numerous
illustrations. I give a sentence or two as showing this, and also the nicety of
his scholarship. "Will it be wonderful if a youth sent from domestic
indulgences, should find school ungrateful and accuse his teachers of being
cruel, that he should recite with mournful recollections, and still sadder
forebodings, that awful Greek verb, tupto, to beat, particularly in the passive voice,
tuptomai, I am under beating
now; etuptomen, I was under beating a little
while ago, and then the dismal future, tuphthesomai, I shall be beaten--but above all
the tenses (denoting the imminence of his dangers), tetupsomai, I shall be very soon beaten again."
He then argues for more severe training, praising the father of John Adams, the
President, who, when his son was reluctant to learn Latin, put him to ditching
as a punishment.

A second injury to improvement comes from the employment of cheap
teachers and want of proper valuation of superior men. Due applause should be
given to the superior schools.

The third cause of imperfection of primary schools is the scarcity of
able teachers. Among the deficiencies is the neglect of the common rudiments of
English education. Another is the omission of the greater part of the classical
course. A third defect is the want of spirit and energy in imparting
instruction. "The manner a schoolmaster should have is much of the
promptness, energy and decision of a military officer, giving the word of
command to a company of soldiers."

Another improvement in our schools would be the use of oral lectures.
Apparatus, maps, plans of sieges, etc., military engines, should be used; for
example, the line of march in one of Cæsar's campaigns in Gaul, the
columns of the two armies, and all the testudos, vineae and battering rams which were
employed. The trustees of academies should provide such.

The proper construction of schoolhouses should be attended to. They
should be built with an especial eye to the purposes to which they are to be
applied. Stoves should be provided instead of fireplaces. He states, that the
celebrated Round Hill in Massachusetts, and the Newbern Academy in this State
approach near to his beau ideal of a schoolroom. He
then describes what he considers the best--with floor of brick laid upon
plank, to prevent noise, not omitting the small cell for confining the
unruly.

Professor Hooper then gives some hints on female education, making the
criticism that some seminaries attempt too much. "The whole encyclopedia
of knowledge is embraced in the list of studies; and the young lady, by the
time she reaches her teens, is in danger of thinking herself grammarian,
geographer, astronomer, chemist, botanist, painter and whatnot."

He closes with a strong argument for the establishment of a
Seminary for the Education of Schoolmasters. "We
have seminaries for training up physicians, lawyers and divines; even mechanics
learn their trades under the best masters. But that most important and
difficult business of fashioning the intellect, moulding the disposition and
wielding the nascent energies of

those who are soon to
be rulers of the world, is left to mere accident, or falls to the lot of the
most common and inexperienced characters."

"We know not how many young persons have been ruined or injured
by unskillful management at school."

The address shows that the author largely anticipated the ideas now
ruling the world of thought on the subject of education.

In 1832, on the 21st of June, the Institute of Education had another
meeting. The Committee on Addresses and Questions for the meeting in 1833 made
their report, which was adopted. Joseph A. Hill, of Wilmington, was appointed
to deliver the Annual Address, James D. Johnston, of Oxford, to read a paper on
Lyceums, Rev. Frederick Nash, on A System of Elementary Schools for North
Carolina, Walker Anderson on "Exciting Emulation in Literary Institutions
by Rewards and Distinctions."

PLEA FOR BALLS.

Those acquainted with college life are surprised at the intensity of
earnestness felt in this microcosm, miniature world, over matters trivial in
the estimation of those who move in the greater world. An abstract of a
petition to the Trustees in 1833, signed by Christopher C. Battle, John H.
Watson and William P. Webb, written by Battle, will illustrate this. They were
a Committee appointed by a mass-meeting of students, for the purpose of
procuring from the Board of Trustees permission to use a room in Steward's Hall
for the Commencement Ball. The petitioners are "sensibly touched with the
delicacy of presenting their petition at so early a period (November 6th), but,
knowing not whether there will be another meeting of the Trustees before
Commencement, the strongest motives of policy constrain their sending it in
now, though stamped with the impress of prematurity." The intellectual
improvement and gentlemanly accomplishments caused by dancing would justify a
special ball-room, and if the New Chapel were completed, they would have asked
permission to fit up the old Chapel for the purpose at their own expense. It
would be extreme presumption to argue the propriety of balls, since the
Trustees

"deduce conclusions from the wisdom of
experience." No genius, however promising, can effect much in the present
enlightened era, destitute of the polished accomplishments.--Since on this
retired Hill of Science, we are precluded from the improvement of Society, we
feel an inevitable drawback upon our literary acquirements. As balls greatly
promote gentility, acquiescence in the petition is earnestly asked for. Waiving
all personal concern, we strenuously advocate its principles as promoting the
best interests of the institution, as enhancing the splendors of our
Commencements, and as contributing much, very much, to the gratification and
pleasure of the adored Fair, who honor us with their company on that universal
jubilee."

The Trustees could not stand against such eloquence. The Ball Managers
in their gratification concluded to send special invitations to all the great
men in the State. Young Battle (a brother of Judge Battle) wrote to the
Governor, Swain, a personal letter, asking him to attend the Ball, "in
order to give dignity and stability" to it. The Governor replied,
regretting that he could not attend, and suggested that "agility"
would be more needed than "stability." Battle was so afraid of this
becoming known to the students, that he made his colleague, Judge Webb, promise
to keep the correspondence secret, which he did faithfully until after their
graduation.

In 1833, Tutor John DeBerniere Hooper resigned his place in order to
become a teacher in the Episcopal School in Raleigh, which had been inaugurated
with great promise of usefulness, which however for various causes failed as a
school for boys, but afterwards as St. Mary's Girls' School became a power for
good. The Sophomore Class passed resolutions, which show the strong hold the
Tutor had on their admiration.. The letter of the Committee accompanying the
resolutions is such a characteristic specimen of the peculiar style which has
given the name of Sophomoric to a species of Oratory, that I quote some
sentences. In truth, no history of a University would be complete without
embalming a specimen of such euphuism. The praises, though grandiloquently
expressed, were well deserved.

"In every day occupations Farewell has an awful and ill-boding
sound in it, but when we reflect that we are now about

to be parted, and perhaps forever, with one who has labored so diligently for
our present happiness and future aggrandisement, and who, by his own example of
piety and virtue, has also pointed out to us the bright and glittering paths of
morality, we are constrained to transcend the usual cold formalities of
separation and bid you that word bearing in its aspect our true expressions of
grief in a valedictory letter." . . . "Now since we are all in the
glow of youth and health, and have ample opportunity, let us take an
affectionate and deep-impressioned farewell, such a one as long-cherished
friends take when they part with the expectation of meeting no more on this
side of eternity. Working out the great course of Nature, some dire pestilence
may sweep across our country and fell you or us, and perhaps both; war and
famine may hurry us into oblivion, or an earthquake may submerge us; to part we
must, and whether we ever again shall meet is on the fluctuating tides of
chance, therefore let us part as convicts doomed to die, but not despairing of
hope. To the reckless and unthinking this may indeed appear more the outward
expressions of grief than the spontaneous emotions of sorrow-stricken hearts,
but they should recollect that we are about to bid adieu to him that has so
honorably conducted us through the Sophomore year, to him that has laid the
foundations of our future eminence, to him that has connected the beauties of
the scholar and the refinements of the gentleman. It belongs alone to the viper
to implant his fangs in the bosom that warmed him, but to a man who is endowed
with the finer sensibilities of his God, it belongs to repay in a two-fold
proportion every generous and benevolent action." . . . "Now, in
all the emotions which the word naturally suggests, we bid you an affectionate
'farewell.' In the name of the whole class, 'farewell.'
"

It was in 1833 that Messrs. Gaston and Badger gave the opinion that
the Board had the right to sell the "service tract" of Maj. Charles
Garrard, at the mouth of Yellow Creek in Tennessee, notwithstanding the wish
expressed in his will that it should be retained by the University. Colonel
Polk as attorney made the sale, $6,400 for the 2,560 acres, and
$2,000 of the proceeds was voted to the finishing of the new Chapel. It
was resolved,

that in order to manifest a grateful sense
of the liberality of the donor and perpetuate his memory of it, this building
be forever known as Gerrard Hall. Col. J. B. Killebrew, the late very
intelligent ex-State Geologist of Tennessee, informed me that the tract is not
of especial fertility, and that the iron deposits once reported to be in its
limits are of little value.

In 1832 the list of attorneys for the University was revised. On
motion of Louis D. Henry the requirement of a bond was dispensed with, as being
unusual, and sometimes mischievous, because excluding superior lawyers, who
consider the requirement a reflection on their professional character. I give
their names as a matter of history. The numbers begin in the mountain
counties.

No. 1. Joshua Roberts

Asheville

2. Anderson Mitchell

Statesville

3. Robert H. Burton

Lincolnton

4. Washington Morrison

Mecklenburg

5. Clement Marshall

Anson

6. John M. Dick

Greensboro

7. John W. Norwood

Hillsboro

8. John D. Eccles

Fayetteville

9. John D. Hawkins

Franklin County

10. Thomas P. Devereux

Raleigh

11. William D. Mosely

Lenoir County

12. Hardy L. Holmes

Clinton

13. Joseph A. Hill

Wilmington

14. Matthias E. Manly

Newbern

15. Benj. J. Blume

16. Joseph R. Lloyd

Tarboro

17. John S. Hawks

Washington

18. John L. Bailey

Elizabeth City

In the same year the Board sold at public auction their 243 shares in
the Bank of New Bern. The average price per share was 63.10 1-2, the purchasers
being Col. Wm. Polk and Messrs. John Snead and Alfred Jones. The purchase
money, $15,208.56, was at once paid on the debts to the Bank of New Bern
and the State Bank, leaving only $1,500 due the branch of the Bank of
New Bern at Raleigh.

REMOVAL TO RALEIGH.

Ex-Governor and ex-Senator Iredell, who had recently removed from
Edenton to Raleigh, moved that a committee of fifteen members be appointed to
consider the expediency of transferring the University to the seat of
government, one of the committee at least to be from each Congressional
District. The President of the Board, Governor Swain, appointed the
following:

James Iredell

Chairman

John B. Baker

Gates

Wm. A. Blount

Beaufort

John H. Bryan

Craven

John Owen

Bladen

William S. Robards

Granville

John D. Toomer

Cumberland

John M. Morehead

Guilford

John Giles

Rowan

Wm. J. Alexander

Mecklenburg

Thomas Love

Haywood

Lewis Williams

Surry

James C. Johnston

Chowan

While it is not known that this committee was favorable to removal, it
is certainly open to criticism that, with such wise Orange County trustees to
choose from as Judge Duncan Cameron, Dr. Joseph Caldwell, Judge Frederick Nash,
James Mebane, Dr. James Webb, Thomas D. Bennehan, Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon,
Alfred Moore, Judge Willie P. Mangum, Dr. James S. Smith, John Scott, Hugh
Waddell, all very active friends of the University, their county, more
interested than any other, had no representative.

Most of the committee were often called on to visit Raleigh on private
or official business. Owen and Robards had recently resided there. Johnston was
a relative of the chairman, Iredell, and often visited him at his home in
Raleigh. Four of them, Dr. S. J. Baker, General Blount, Mr. Bryan and Mr.
Henry, removed to the capitol, and Dr. J. B. Baker was a relative of Dr. S. J.
Baker. Although a majority of these trustees might have been expected to favor
removal, the committee in December, 1833, reported that it was inexpedient at
that time. Notice was

given that it would be called up
at the next meeting, but the measure slept forever.

There was a spirited discussion of this question between two
Seniors--Crenshaw of Wake, and Proteus E. A. Jones of Granville--at
the ensuing Commencement. It is said that Mr. Crenshaw of Wake, "applied
the lash" to Orange. He contended that Wake County would welcome the
University. He sarcastically remarked that no one in that county would get
votes by running about and telling the people that he would persuade the
Legislature to force students to work on the roads. This was probably aimed at
Joseph Allison, a Representative for that and other years, and often Senator,
whose reputation for saying things pleasing to the people was very high. Mr.
Jones of Granville, with much animation and ingenuity, vindicated Orange, and
opposed removal. The question was not brought again before the Trustees. The
University was in such condition that all its energies were required to enable
it to stay in Chapel Hill.

The Commencement of 1833 was held without the presence of Dr.
Caldwell, whose health required a visit to Philadelphia. The strong man's
constitution was steadily giving away to the assaults of an incurable disease,
and the most eminent surgeons advised against lithotomy. The joltings over the
long rough roads gave him exquisite anguish, which he bore with the fortitude
of a martyr. Professor Mitchell, the senior professor, presided as his
lieutenant, at the request of the Trustees.

The address before the Literary Societies was delivered by George E.
Badger, chosen by the Dialectic Society, who had stood from early manhood among
the ablest and best in our State. It is said by the chronicler to show
"accurate and profound thought, strength and vigor of expression,
interspersed here and there with a caustic sarcasm forcibly applied."
While this praise is well merited it did not meet with the success obtained by
that of Judge Gaston.

John Gray Bynum carried off the first honor, and spoke the Latin
Salutatory. Junius B. King and Wm. N. Mebane were next and equal, and Mebane
drew the Valedictory. King took the Philosophical Oration, and Solomon Lea that
on Belles

Letters. The other honor men were Julian E.
Sawyer, Addi E. Thom and Wm. H. Owen, and to them were allotted the
Intermediate Orations. Wm. M. Crenshaw and Proteus E. A. Jones, as heretofore
stated, discussed the question whether the University should be removed to
Raleigh; Edmund Jones and Josiah Stallings wrestled with the problem,
"Will the Emancipation of the Slaves in the West Indies be
Beneficial?" and W. E. Kennedy and Henry I. McLin, "Whether the
Recent Revolutions in Europe Will Be Productive of Good to the Human
Race?"

In after life Bynum was a very strong lawyer and influential in the
State Legislature, but missed high political preferment. Mebane was an able and
useful Presbyterian minister and King embraced the same calling, and held
similar rank in Alabama. Lea was in the front rank of Methodist preachers, a
tutor in Randolph-Macon College, President of Farmville Female Seminary, and
then of Greensboro Female College. Sawyer was likewise a minister, as well as
Thom. Owen was a much respected Tutor of Ancient Languages, and then professor
of the same at Wake Forest College. Edmund W. Jones was a State Senator, a
councillor of State and member of the Conventions of 1861 and 1865.

The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on Rev. John Avery, rector
of the Episcopal Church of Edenton, and Principal of the Edenton Academy, and
that of Master of Arts on Rev. Philip Bruce Wiley, a teacher, and also
Episcopal minister.

Joseph Alston Hill, son of one of the Commissioners to select the site
of the University, William H. Hill, very early in life attained distinction as
full of promise of future usefulness, and was cut off before reaching middle
age. The speech delivered by him before the Institute of Education justified
his reputation, being full of wit, fancy, elegance, good sense. He described
with much effect his sufferings at the Preparatory School in Chapel Hill, and
pleaded for a more sparing use of the rod. The reporter however thought that
the number and appropriateness of his classical quotations proved that the
scourgings he had received had not been in vain.

showed extensive research. The veteran editor, Col. R.
B. Creecy, states that Mr. Johnston was an uncommonly able teacher.

Prof. Walker Anderson closed by giving his experience in the education
of females. It is unfortunate that this paper is lost.

The North Carolina Institute of Education seems to have had no other
meeting. As Dr. Wm. Hooper was evidently a leading spirit, if not the promoter
of it, I conjecture that the distractions caused by the long, painful and fatal
sickness of his step-father, President Caldwell, withdrew his attention from
everything extraneous to his regular duties. It is notable that the professors
of chemistry (Mr. Mitchell) and of mathematics (Mr. Phillips), declined active
aid to it although they became members. It is significant that in 1831 the
Executive Committee were Messrs. Mitchell, Hooper and Phillips, and in 1832
Messrs. McPheeters, Hooper and Bingham. It was a brave effort, however, on the
part of its promoters. One hundred and thirty of the leaders of the State
became members.

At the Commencement of 1834, Prof. Mitchell presided, President
Caldwell still languishing with his painful disease. The newspaper
correspondent was enthusiastic over the improved behavior of the students. The
obstreperous plaudits, with which they used to deafen the audience, no matter
when in or out of place, were either omitted altogether, or exchanged for
judicious signs of approbation. The feeble health of the President was
sympathizingly commented on. His altered appearance presented a sad contrast
with the active steps and cheerful disposition, which once distinguished
him.

The class was the last which graduated before the death of President
Caldwell. James Biddle Shepard was the best and had the Latin Salutatory.
Abraham F. Morehead was the next, with the Valedictory. Then followed David
McAllister, who spoke on Political Economy. Wm. Pugh Bond and Wm. Pinckney Gunn
were next and equal. Bond spoke on the Drama and Gunn on Astronomy. Samuel R.
Blake and Samuel Williams discussed the query whether a College Education was
essential to General Culture; Thomas Goelet Haughton and

Thomas Jasper Williams, Whether Manufacturers would be beneficial to the South;
Henry Watkins Miller and Harrison Wall Covington, Whether Institutions for
Public Education should be under control of the State, and William Brown Carter
and Albert Gallatin Anderson, Whether a Medical Board would be of benefit to
North Carolina.

Of the honor graduates, Shepard became a member of the General
Assembly and United States District Attorney. He was the nominee of the
Democratic party for the Governorship when Wm. A. Graham was elected in 1846.
He was a fine speaker, but too wealthy to undergo the drudgery of the bar.
Morehead, a brother of Governor Morehead, was Tutor of the University, wrote
some short poems of merit and was a promising lawyer when carried off by
pulmonary consumption in 1837. McAlister was also a Tutor, and then a
physician. Bond was a Judge and member of the Legislature in Tennessee, also a
preacher of the Baptist Church.

Of those who gained no honors, Henry Watkins Miller was one of the
ablest lawyers and most eloquent orators in the State. He was elected to the
Legislature at the beginning of the Civil War, and died while a member.

Of those matriculating but not graduating, Edwin Alexander Anderson
graduated at Yale, was an able physician, President of the State Medical
Society. A President of this University, now of the University of Virginia, was
named after him--Edwin Anderson Alderman. One matriculate--Wm. W.
Avery--lost his life in the Civil War, as will be hereafter described.

The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, (LL.D.) was conferred on George
Edmund Badger, late Judge and afterwards United States Senator, on Thomas
Ruffin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and on Levi Silliman Ives, Bishop
of North Carolina; that of Doctor of Divinity on Rev. Andrew Syme of Virginia,
of the Episcopal Church. That of Master of Arts on Samuel Smith.

AID TO CALDWELL.

President Caldwell's disease proved to be beyond the surgeons' skill,
and caused him excruciating pain the remainder of his life. Possessed of
remarkable fortitude, he did not at

once lay down his
accustomed work. In December, 1833, the disease had made such ravages on his
strength that for the first time he asked for help. At his suggestion it was
ordered that when the President was unable by failure of health to take a
personal and active part in preventing disorders in and among the College
Buildings and the vicinity, the professor of oldest standing should be
peculiarly vested with the responsibility and power to aid in the active duties
of the Presidency. Thus Elisha Mitchell was at first partially, and then
entirely, the acting President until the advent of President Swain.

Although President Caldwell insisted on doing his part in instruction,
the Trustees determined to relieve him to some extent. On motion of Wm. Julius
Alexander, an Adjunct Professorship of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy was
created, with a salary of $1,000, soon raised to $1,240. The
Standing Committee of Appointments elected Walker Anderson to the Chair. The
house expected to be purchased from Thomas H. Taylor, that east of the
Episcopal Church, was promised to him.

The following by-laws, regulating the conduct of students, were the
last proposed by President Caldwell, and they, together with that above
mentioned, in regard to the Senior Professor, show clearly his disciplinary
ideas.

A mandate was laid on every member of the Faculty to be vigilant in
carrying out the laws of the College, and to report transgressions.

It was declared to be a great object of the Trustees in assigning
rooms in the buildings to Tutors, that they should individually and unitedly
suppress disorders, not only in their own, but in all the buildings. They could
not be absent without permission of the President.

The Tutors must go to their recitation rooms a reasonable time before
the bell rings and teach the whole hour, unless bell for dismission should
sound earlier.

Among other provisions, after several years of entreaty on the part of
the Seniors, the vacation asked for by them of one month prior to Commencement,
was granted. This became the settled practice for years, to the great
satisfaction of those

who had speeches to prepare for
Commencement, and the delight of those to whom text-books were a torment.

As Professor Wm. Hooper owned his dwelling and Prof. Anderson rented
one, they were allowed a commutation of $75 per annum, which was about
the rental of the best houses in Chapel Hill.

Our modern football has not unrivalled distinction of peril to life
and limb. The President reported that the favorite game of the students, known
as Bandy, or Shinny, was dangerous, especially if played with a round wooden
ball. The players were frequently knocked apparently lifeless and were
incapacitated for duty several days. The students themselves were once so
shocked that they voluntarily gave up the sport, but renewed it. It was so
firmly established by prescription that the Faculty doubted their power of
prohibiting it without the previous action of the Board, which action, however,
was not had.

Rev. Dr. Wm. McPheeters, the Principal of the flourishing Raleigh
Academy, earnestly pressed raising the standard for admission into the
University. This was acceded to, and the following requirements were
enacted.

In Mathematics, the whole of Arithmetic (Barnard's or Adam's) and
Young's Algebra to Simple Equations. In the Classics, Jacob's Greek Reader, the
whole of the prose; or Græca Minora and the latter part of Jacob's Greek
Reader; the whole of Virgil, and Cicero's Select Orations, except the
Philippics.

For the coming session the President, or Dr. Mitchell, was to appoint
three Tutors, temporarily, but from and after the 1st of January, 1835, the
Trustees were to appoint three, at a salary of $500 each. One should be
styled Tutor of Ancient and Modern Languages, one of Ancient Languages, and the
third of Mathematics.

RECOMMENDATION OF PROFESSORS--JUDGE ANDERSON'S
SCHEME.

The President and Professors were requested to report to the Board
such alterations as their own experience and acquaintance with other colleges
might suggest.

The Faculty, in response to this request, made the following
recommendations, probably the last important paper in the handwriting of Dr.
Caldwell, his legacy to the University.

That there shall be three Tutors. One with a salary of $750, to
be styled the first or principal Tutor, to teach Latin and French. A second is
to teach Greek, and the third Mathematics. It has been found by experience that
the present salary, $400, is not sufficient to retain our best scholars.
Tutors, as a rule, must be educated by this institution. Weight of character is
of very great importance as well as scholarship, and this combination cannot be
assured for a length of time on so small compensation as heretofore paid. The
following scale is deemed best: A graduate who has never taught, $450; a
graduate who has taught one year, $500; a graduate who has taught two
years, $600. The regulations for the duties of Tutors to be as
heretofore adopted.

The standard of Education in the best Northern colleges is higher than
in our University. It is recommended to advance to theirs' by degrees. If we
were to adopt those of Harvard and Yale, we would for a year have no Freshman
class. The Trustees were asked to confer the authority to fix the terms of
admission on the Faculty.

Individual members of the Faculty submitted separate papers.

The most elaborate and novel recommendation was by Walker Anderson, a
man of much experience, good sense and honesty of intention. He began by
avowing his veneration and respect for his colleagues. The defects he will
point out do not involve any censure on them.

The first defect is the low standard of scholarship, not perhaps in
comparison with other colleges, but still certain. Our graduates in the large
majority of cases, carry with them the most slender and superficial knowledge
of what they studied. There are two causes for this. One is the deficiency of
primary schools. The second is the utter inapplicability of University

discipline to the regulation of boys. Some half dozen of
the lower classes are stimulated by the hope of distinction, but the multitude,
unambitious, unconscious of the value of time and opportunity, and secure in
the panoply of college principles, are impenetrable to motives Professors can
present.

The second defect is the nature of the discipline. This is moulded to
suit the needs of mere boys, and the necessary strictness is irritating to the
young men. Boys learning Latin and Greek and the elementary parts of
Mathematics, as is the case with our two lower classes, ought to be in school
under a master.

The third defect is the isolation of the University. He believes that
a village has all the temptations and evils of a city, without the restraining
influence of an enlightened and Christian community.

He might mention other defects, but these are sufficient to show that
a change should be made.

What are the remedies?

1. Better academical instruction.

2. The subjection of boys to school discipline until they have
obtained probable discretion.

3. A more elevated standard of scholarship, both in the Languages and
Sciences.

4. That the students should be placed in the reach of an improved and
Christian society.

5. That these objects be accomplished without adding materially to the
expense of the institution.

It is proposed that the institution be divided into two departments,
"The Collegiate Institute of North Carolina" and "The
University of North Carolina." The former to be located at Chapel Hill
under a Rector and three Tutors, and to be modelled after the high schools of
Europe and our Northern States. In this should be taught, under the most
improved school discipline the studies leading up to our Junior Class.

2. The University should be located in a town, preferably in Raleigh;
its officers, four Professors, one to be President, namely, one of Mathematics
and Astronomy, one of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, one of Moral Philosophy
and Political

Economy, and one of Belles Lettres and
Ancient Literature. There should be three classes, the course to occupy three
years. The Professors should be ready, if necessary, to teach in other
departments. It might be expedient, after awhile, to add a Professor of Law.
They should reside under the same roof with the students. The object should be
to have a University of the highest grade. The half grammar school and half
college which we have now, can never be different from the present.

As to the expense--

The present expenses for the teaching force is $8,560. The
officer to assist the President on account of his declining health receives
$1,240. When he is no longer needed the annual charge will be
$7,320. The tuition fees are about $3,000, leaving near
$4,500 to be provided from other sources. Under the proposed
arrangement, the salaries of the Rector ($1,200) and the three Tutors
($600 each) will amount to $3,000, which would be discharged by
tuition fees of those receiving an elementary education. It might be best,
however, to employ an able Rector and let him receive all fees and be
responsible for all expenses.

There would then be in the University proper, at Raleigh or elsewhere,
the President and three Professors. Let them receive $1,000 each, and,
in addition, the President have two-fifths of the tuition money, and the other
Professors to have one-fifth each. If there should be forty students, these
officers would receive about the amount now paid them. The charge on the
University would be about $4,000 a year, which is less than at
present.

As to the Buildings--

It is recommended that a part of the funds to be derived from the
Tennessee lands be invested in a building to contain four lecture-rooms, and
accommodations for 64 students, or have 50 students and rooms for the President
and his family. Such a structure would cost $10,000, and the rent of
rooms would pay 8 per cent on that sum. If the number of students should
increase, they might be provided for in the same manner, and so Professors and
students would be under the same roof.

In another letter Judge Anderson expresses the opinion that, if the
foregoing changes be adopted, there ought not to be any Tutors. The most
unlearned pupils require the best teachers. The Freshman and Sophomore studies
are taught with less efficiency by inexperienced preceptors than the more
advanced portions, and should have the most skillful teachers. The discipline,
too, is devolved upon young men, possessing no authority, nor weight of
character, with the students. The Professors ought to live among the students,
as at the University of Virginia. Professor Anderson closes his letter by
declining the proposition made to him, to give instruction in Natural
Philosophy, Astronomy, Moral Philosophy, Political Economy, Rhetoric and Logic.
He cannot attend to the business of two and a half Professors.

Dr. Mitchell wrote that he was not furnished with such facts and dates
as would entitle his opinion to respect. He suggested that the Faculty should
correspond with other institutions, and report plans founded on information
gathered. It is possible that being the locum tenens of
the President, he deemed it wrong to criticize the institution, which was the
product of the labors and thoughts of Dr. Caldwell.

Prof. Wm. Hooper, of the Department of Ancient Languages, answered the
enquiries of the Trustees with much earnestness, especially directed against
the consignment of the two lower classes to Tutors. These contain thirty to
thirty-five members each, while the upper classes have only fifteen or twenty.
He described the Tutors as almost always recent graduates, without authority of
character and of scholarship, scarcely a whit superior to their pupils. It is
not to be expected that such novices--equals to-day and superiors
to-morrow--should command respect and enforce good order. The result is
the total prostration of good scholarship and considerable relaxation of
discipline. At present the whole instruction of three Professors, and the
partial instruction of a fourth, will be given to the Senior class. Of one
hundred or more University youth, about sixty-five or seventy are starved with
a meagre taste of knowledge, while the favored minority are stuffed even to
surfeiting. The experience of Northern Colleges,

which
employ numerous Tutors, is like that of our University. This statement is made
on the authority of Professor Stuart of Andover.

Professor Hooper, in January, 1834, sent to the Committee of
Appointments a formal protest against the recommendation by the majority of the
Faculty of the immediate choice of a Professor of Rhetoric and a third Tutor.
The reasons for the protest may be inferred from the foregoing invective
against the Tutorial system and the neglect of classical instruction in the
lower classes. He closes by saying that he has done his duty in laying before
the Trustees the true state of his department. If the evil be not remedied, he
will feel himself absolved from the responsibility of attempting to make
classical scholars at this college and "resign himself to the
tranquillity of despair." He asks for an Adjunct Professor to share his
labors.

It would not be fair to the Tutors, most of whom were of ability and
high character, not to mention that Dr. Hooper, on account of ill health, often
took very gloomy views of his surroundings. Dr. Caldwell at this time informed
the Board that the Professor had been subject to another attack of hemorrhage
from the lungs, which was somewhat copious and continued for some time. He
recommended the appointment of a Professor of Greek, if possible, and thus take
one of the Ancient Languages from the shoulders of Prof. Hooper.

The Professor of Mathematics, Rev. James Phillips, sent in a spicy
report and recommendation. He stated that he had been engaged in the business
of teaching for twenty-five years, the last eight of which at this place, and
though he had met with discouragements, he could not recollect a single case of
entire failure. After an impartial review of what had been effected here, he is
compelled to say that he has on the whole failed of his object. Some of the
causes, at least, may be traced to the following sources: 1. The bad method of
teaching in our schools. 2. The inexperience and incompetency of our Tutors. 3.
The low estimate placed on the mathematical sciences here and in the State. 4.
The obstinate determination on the part of some students to do as little as
possible. This might be obviated by refusing diplomas to them. 5. The oral

examinations are too short, should be superseded by
written, and time given to those examined to collect their thoughts.

With regard to the proposal to demand of matriculates an acquaintance
with Algebra, the following suggestions are made.

The system which embraces the synthetic to the exclusion of the
analytic modes of instruction, is defective. 1. The analytic is more concise
and admits of greater amount and variety of instruction in a given time. 2. It
is more uniform, general and comprehensive. 3. It is the easiest and imposes no
unnecessary load on the memory. For this statement he quoted La Croix and La
Place. 4. The best treatises on Statics, Dynamics, and Physical Astronomy
abound with analytical formulæ, which would be unintelligible to those
unacquainted with analysis. 5. It induces the habit of investigation and
compels the student to think for himself.

If it be objected that the deficiences
of our students are such that the standard ought to be lowered rather than
raised, it is answered that no increase of difficulty is intended; that this
University ought to enter into honorable competition with those who have
introduced analytical Trigonometry and Geometry, and that the interests of
society and not that of individuals ought to require not only the quantity but
the quality of instruction.

He therefore recommends that there should be required for admission
into the Freshman class, the whole of Arithmetic, practical and theoretical,
and Algebra as far as Irrational and Imaginary quantities in Young's Algebra,
or a fair equivalent on the same subject in any other treatise. This would
place our University on a level with the most respectable institutions in our
country.

In a report two years before this, Dr. Caldwell, with his accustomed
strength, urged that the Faculty might be allowed to employ and pay scholarly
men to attend the examinations. The plan of relying on Trustees had failed. Few
had for years come at all, and they had dropped in near the close of the
period. He tactfully suggested an argumentun ad homines. A very scientific person may
not be qualified to be a Trustee, and so one may properly be elevated to a seat
on the Board, who is very imperfectly, if at all, prepared to become an
inquisitor into the

scientific attainments of a student.
This point was thoroughly appreciated by the boys under examination, who well
understood that, no matter how wise they looked, gentlemen fresh from
attendance on the Courts or Legislature, were necessarily rusty on Greek roots
and differential co-efficients.

Moreover, the presence of learned strangers would have a strong moral
effect on idle students. Having often been reproved by their instructors, they
become revengeful, deal in charges of oppression, partiality, prejudice and
even personal enmity. In this they encourage and fortify one
another--against authority, and are studious of open or secret methods of
evading or resisting the laws. They look on examinations only as other
instruments of oppression and unite together to set them at naught. A Faculty
may act with unexceptional prudence, and strive to maintain parental and
benevolent feelings in all their intercourse, and yet find it difficult to
prevent the success of the idle and dissipated, whose object is to precipitate
all into confusion and inefficiency. They have a need of reacting force from
without. This may be provided with incalculable effects by subjecting the
merits and demerits of students to examiners called in from society at large
throughout the State.

At much length he argued in favor of having the vacations in the
spring and fall, when the weather is pleasant. "In the summer the eastern
students now become saturated with malaria. In the winter the students leave
their habitual protection for exposure on their journeys three to five or six
days, "through the storms of winter, and through mire and water, if the
weather be soft, but through ice and snow if it be cold." The good doctor
even became poetical for once. The object of vacations is to allow the students
and members of the Faculty to restore tone and energy to the system languishing
with inaction, and to the mind worn with exertion unbalanced by that of the
body. To this is necessary daily activity with pleasantness and variety of
outward scenery. With this end in view, who of us would select the fiery ardors
of the summer solstice, or the chilling blasts or snows of mid-winter? Though
they seem illy sorted here, it is hard to avoid the repetition of those lines
which we all have so often heard:

"Who can hold a fire in hand,
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or wallow naked in December's snow,
By thinking on fantastick Summer's heat?
Ah no! the apprehension of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse."

The student should have acquaintance with the society and the world,
which can be better had in the pleasant seasons.

He urged other objections to the existing plan. One is that many
students, on account of the difficulty of traveling, remain at Chapel Hill,
peculiarly liable and often succumbing to temptation.

He mentions with indignation the depredations of the villagers on the
woodlands of the University, and suggested the employment of a ranger for
stopping it.

The part of the foregoing report in regard to the vacations was
referred to Messrs. Nash, Caldwell, Jos. B. Skinner, and D. L. Swain, who
recommended that the vacations should be six weeks long, beginning on the last
Monday of April and the first Monday of October of each year. The Board refused
to concur in the proposition, and also rejected the further recommendation that
the Commencements shall be held in the middle, and not at the end of the
sessions.

Instead of employing experts, the Trustees were divided into five
classes, their duty being in rotation to attend the examinations, those
attending, not exceeding five, to be paid $1.50 per day for expenses. It
is needless to say that even this gilded bait did not often attract them. One
Committee was secured, who recommended that the pay should be $3.00 and
ten cents mileage, but the Trustees did not grant it.

The President ineffectually urged that the Professors should hold
their office during good behaviour. In practice this has virtually been the
rule. In rare cases the Trustees acted on their legal right of dropping an
obnoxious Professor without specifying any misbehaviour.

It is to the credit of the Philanthropic Society that, at this time,
under the leadership of strong members, like Richard B. Creecy, Haywood Guion,
Wm. B. Rodman, James B. Shepard, and Ralph H. Graves, it offered $1,000
as a contribution towards

a new library. They proposed a
room forty feet square, with six windows and three fireplaces. The finances of
the University did not allow the acceptance of the offer.

A contract of sale of fifty acres of the forest, now called Battle
Park, was made with Prof. Wm. Hooper, which was cancelled on his leaving the
University. The large trees were mostly cut off under this contract. The white
oak trees were left to supply hogs with acorns. There are remnants of a stone
wall enclosure extending into the Park.

THE HARBINGER.

In 1834 there was published by Isaac C. Partridge, under the auspices
of the Faculty, a weekly newspaper called the Harbinger. The terms were $3.00 if paid in advance,
$4.00 if delayed six months, the publication being conditioned on
obtaining six hundred subscribers.

The objects of this novel enterprise, as stated in the Prospectus,
were very ambitious and patriotic,--"to diffuse literary information
with correct taste, to impress the importance of popular and academic
education, and explain the best methods discreetly but with independent freedom
of stricture; to discuss subjects on which it is important to enlighten the
public mind; to furnish events and circumstances occurring among ourselves,
that deserve notice; to exhibit science in popular form that will solicit
curiosity and be generally intelligible; to promote the cause of Internal
Improvement; and to give a competent portion of the political and religious
intelligence of the time, with studious exclusion of all party
character."

The opinion is expressed that the public had long expected such a
publication from the site of the University, "the express purpose of
which is to cultivate and diffuse valuable knowledge, such as is already
treasured up and is constantly increasing with the progress of the
age."

Fears are expressed as to the promptness of remittances, which was all
the more necessary, "as the enterprise will be wholly without profit
except the necessary remuneration to the publishers and his employees. A
periodical paper in all its movements must by the very terms run against time,
and every experienced and reflecting man knows the truth expressed by

Dr. Johnson, that he, who enters the lists with time for
his antagonist, must toil with diligence not to find himself beaten. Every one
who favors the Harbinger with his patronage we hope
will do it with presence of mind to the importance of fidelity in his
remittance. On this the establishment must depend for its support."

Then the publisher comes in with a modest disclaimer that he
"would not enlarge on the qualities of the proposed periodical even to
excite in the bosom of his fellow citizens a disposition to give it countenance
and support, lest while consulting that object, he might seem to expose himself
to the charge of making vain promises, or raise expectations too high to be
fulfilled. But that a paper of such a character, as perhaps has been already
imagined in the minds of his readers, is desirable in our State, he cannot but
think few will deny."

The prospectus closes with the request that all to whom copies have
been sent will not only subscribe for themselves, but procure subscriptions
from others. Moreover, the publisher naively asks all the papers in the United
States not only to copy it, but to act as agents to further its object. It is
dated January 26, 1833, and it was hoped to begin publication by the first of
the following June.

We do not have a file of the Harbinger, but
fragments of it were cut out and pasted in a book, from which we are enabled to
get a glimpse of its character. Judging from the subjects discussed and the
style, the mixture of humor and gravity, Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Wm. Hooper were
evidently the chief contributors. I give abstracts of some of the leading
articles.

There is a very intelligent paper on "The Stars,"
suggested by the great fall of meteors on the night of November 13, 1833. The
writer suggested that they were "Terrible indications of
war--between certain members of the editorial corps in North
Carolina" (a Raleigh editor had recently felled another with a bludgeon),
or "the Legislature are going to have a stormy session," or, by
their laws, "wage fatal war upon the best interests of their
constituents." This ridicule was then useful, as many ignorant people
were really frightened. The article then treats, 1st of Lightning, 2nd, of
"Fire-balls or proper

Meteors," 3rd, of the
Aurora Borealis, 4th, of Shooting Stars, 5th, of Ignis Fatuus, 6th, of San
Elmos. The first is pronounced the most dangerous of all. As to the Fire Balls,
after giving three hypotheses, the author believes in a fourth, that they are
terrestrial comets, which, becoming visible to us when in their perigeum, and,
electrified passing through the atmosphere, discharge their electricity with an
explosion that rends off part of their mass, and pass on. Shooting stars are
very common, but never so brilliant as on the morning of the 13th November,
1833. The author, however, thinks their number was exaggerated, as he saw only
one at intervals of two or three seconds, but greater numbers may have fallen
earlier in the night. Of the Aurora Borealis, he states that it was so
brilliant on the night of September 28, 1828, in Paris that the fire companies
turned out and drove furiously through the streets, thinking the city was on
fire. It is produced by "electricity in motion, we cannot tell why or
how." Of the Ignis Fatuus, he says that he has been tempted to pronounce
it a delusion, but its appearance is too well authenticated to be doubted. The
chemist can form nothing like it. It is "like rotten wood, which
according to our theories ought not to be luminous, but it shines
notwithstanding." There is a note here which resembles the style of Dr.
Mitchell laughing at the Professor of Ancient Languages. "The words
(Jack-o'-the-Lantern, Will-o'-the-Wisp) will afford to the future investigator
of the English tongue, when it shall have become a dead language, an ample
field for dissertation. If we may be allowed to substitute the signs of the
dialects of Greece for those he will use, we may suppose him to state that the
original form was Jackwithalantern, which became Ionice, Jackothelantern;
Doric, Jackomelantern; Attic, Jackalantern. He will also remark, that
Willwithawisp is altogether irregular, from an obsolete root, as Haireo makes
eilon in the second aorist." San Elmo is a Spanish name for a meteor of
electric origin. When there were two the ancients called them Castor and
Pollux.

Another article, published April 24, 1834, strongly praises Tudor's
Travels in Mexico and the West Indies, as one of the best books of travels that
has been published at a period prolific in works of this kind. The critic,
evidently Dr. Mitchell, is rapturous over the magnificent scenery, "the
bold and salient outline, the close association of light and shadow" in
these countries. He jocularly adds that "it seems as though our country
were intended for the residence of a race of prudent republicans, who are to
raise fine crops of tobacco, wheat, corn, cotton, and rice; construct railroads
and dig canals; make good laws and steer the ship of state, driven and buffeted
though she be by a tremendous northeaster, in safety over the ocean of ages,
but that the improvised child of genius must be nourished and inspired amid the
happy valleys or on the wild rocks of Mexico." The allusion to the
"tremendous northeaster" seems a prophecy of our terrible Civil
War, but, if Mexico has excelled us in children of genius, it is not at all
apparent. Nor can we assent to the snow covered peaks of our neighbors as being
superior to the grandeurs of Niagara Falls and the Yellowstone Geysers.

Another editorial is entitled "A Meditation among the
Pines." When the breeze blows through a forest of long-leaved pines, the
mind of the writer is moved to speculate on the beauty, the usefulness and
antiquity of the trees. There are botanists who believe that plants have
sensations of pleasure and pain analogous to those of man, "But though we
may indulge in these dreams in regard to a healthy and vigorous oak or hickory,
it seems difficult to extend them to the pines. Driving their roots into a mass
of arid sand, and with leaves just large enough to whistle and sigh with, but
not to be the means and seat of enjoyment, an old Pythagorean might be excused
for believing them the appointed abodes and prisons of all the misers who have
ever trod the earth--to look down upon the yellow sand and find in it an
image and likeness of that which engrossed their affections in other
days."

Changing the thought, the goodness of the Deity is discerned in this
most useful tree, covering what without it would be a worthless waste. It was
probably introduced on this continent

The excavations of the Clubfoot and Harlow Canal disclosed bones of
the great Mastodon, "part of which found their way to Dr. Jones' Museum
and a couple of teeth were sent to the University, it is believed, by Captain
(Otway) Burns." Afterwards were discovered the jaws of a young elephant,
with teeth sound, which fell into the hands of Mr. Fulton, the late State
Engineer, who carried them off to Georgia. Mr. Lucas Benners, one of the few
men of North Carolina who understood the value of the marl beds, presented to
the University a "magnificent tooth of a full-grown elephant in good
preservation." The Jones here mentioned was Dr. Calvin Jones of Wake
County. Fulton was a Scotch civil engineer, employed by the State at a salary
of $6,000 a year to make our rivers navigable.

An apology is made for wandering from the pine. "The character
of this communication would be at variance with its title, if there were an
intimate connection between its first and latter part." It is signed by
"N."

In another issue is given a description by Michaux of the method of
making tar, pitch, turpentine, and gas, the long-leaved pine being the chief
source. It is annotated by "N," who states that illuminating gas
was made by letting melted rosin flow on anthracite coal. He predicts a great
future for the manufacture of oil from cotton seed, "when a little
additional perfection is given to the machinery for the separation of the outer
porous coat from the oleaginous seed," a prediction since verified.

There is a very vivid description of a storm off Hatteras by "J.
J. T." Although professedly written on shipboard, if there is any truth
in the narration, it must have been detailed from memory. "Our mainmast
has gone by the Larboard, our rigging and sails, split into a thousand ribbons,
commingling together, are wildly streaming in the wind. Dismay and despair are
depicted on every countenance. . . . For sixteen days we have been driven at
the mercy of the winds and waves. . . . The beautiful and accomplished Miss
---- is among the

passengers . . . tossed upon
the roaring waves. Were she but safe I would willingly embrace the fatal
ingurgitating billow. If we are destined here to find a grave, may the same
wave receive us both."

There are several articles on "Rural Economy." In them
Kenrick's New American Orchardist is highly praised, and much valuable advice
is given. Kenrick described 235 vareties of apples,
251 pears, 87 peaches, 20 nectarines, 19 apricots, 63 plums, 43 cherries, 56
grapes, and a number of almonds, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, etc. A
statement is made which may be new to some readers, that a graft on any stock
will keep pace in the changes it undergoes with the stock from which it is
derived. Part of a paper on the cultivation of the vine in Madeira, published
in Silliman's Journal, is given, in order to show that peculiarities of soil
and exposure even on the same farm must be observed, in order to obtain good
results.

A very intelligent editorial, signed "N" (undoubtedly Dr.
Mitchell) gives the best methods of producing fire. After mentioning the old
method of rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, of striking a flint with
steel, and by the sunglass, he describes the phosphorous vial, into which a
splinter, with sulphur coating the end, was thrust and rapidly withdrawn. For
this, some ten or twelve years before, there was substituted Hertner's
Eupyrism, from Paris. This was a vial containing strong sulphric acid and a bundle of matches, the latter headed
with chlorate of potash and a little starch or sugar, colored with vermilion.
The fire was produced by contact of the acid with the potash and starch or
sugar.

"Very recently a new fire apparatus has been introduced under
the name of Lucifer Matches." The making of these is described, and the
prediction ventured that "this little apparatus appears to be superior to
and likely to supplant every other." The writer does not mention the
"chunk," or fragment of burning wood, which good housekeepers
covered up, when they retired to sleep, nor the perpetual fire kept burning in
old Rome by the Vestal Virgins, from which the citizens could obtain a spark
when desired.

There is an excellent article by the same pen on "Engraving on
Steel." "N" explains engraving on wood, on stone, and on
plates of copper, a soft metal, and then shows how plates of steel were
softened by heating with iron filings and so became soft enough to be cut by
the tools of the artist, then hardened by heating with charcoal. This
interesting statement is made: "When the adherents of the Bonaparte
family wished to excite a feeling in their favor a few years since, some small
prints were brought into the market and sold at an insignificant price, well
executed on steel and exhibiting the appearance of Napoleon at the time of the
most remarkable events of his life--when yet a stripling he directed the
siege of Toulon, afterwards at the bridge of Arcola, in Egypt, passing the
Alps, at Tilsit, Austerlitz, Fontainbleau, and St. Helena." I have one of
these prints, a bunch of violets, showing the features of the Emperor, Maria
Louisa, and their son.

In a paper on Crocodiles much skepticism is shown about Waterton's
claim, that he rode on the back of an alligator into the water, twisting one of
his forelegs over his back as a bridle. It is suggested that it requires
enormous strength thus to handle the arm of the animal, and that the beast
would be more likely to sink in the mud at the bottom than to retain buoyancy
sufficient to float with a large man on his back. Quotations are, however, made
from Pliny, asserting that the Egyptians would mount a crocodile in the water
and when he opened his mouth thrust a club between his jaws, so that they could
not be closed, and thus easily capture him. Dr. Pococke, in his observations on
Egypt, places the locality of riding on land, not in the water.

Of an article on Mathematics only the title remains.

A very interesting discussion is given as to whether a vulture, in our
land called turkey buzzard, finds his food by sight or by scent. It had been
the general opinion, supported by the authority of the ornithologist, Wilson,
that it was by his very acute sense of smell, but in 1826 Audubon furnished for
Jameson's Journal an article, detailing some careful experiments which tended
to prove that Turkey Buzzards, at least, depend for the discovery of their prey
on sight. Charles Waterton,

author of "Wandering
in South America," ridicules Audubon. He says, "I grieve from my
heart that the vulture's nose has received such a tremendous blow. . . . I have
a fellow feeling for this noble bird. We have been for years together in the
same country. We have passed many nights amongst the same trees; and though we
did not frequent the same mess, still we saw a great deal of each other's
company." Waterton relies on the fact that a large serpent lay untouched
under thick trees, until it was putrefied, when the birds found it at once. He
thinks it strange that vultures, if they rely on sight, do not pounce down on
sleeping fowls, even on men, who in the tropics take their siesta in the open
air.

On the other side, Dr. John Bachman instituted a series of experiments
lasting a month in order to settle the question. The professors of the Medical
College of Charleston were observers of his work. They all agreed that the
turkey buzzards of that region are guided entirely by sight.

The critic of the Harbinger was, however, not
satisfied. He says, "We cannot help suspecting that it will turn out at
last that the buzzard has both eyes and a nose, or at least nostrils. Nor can a
Charleston bird be considered a perfectly fair experiment, bred as he has been
in the smoke and steam of two or three thousand kitchens, and amid the offal of
a large city, and differing therefore from a buzzard inhabiting the fields and
forests of the back country, as much as the keeper of a dram shop does from a
thoroughgoing member of a temperance society. The former, if he be allowed to
apply his nose to the bung-hole of a whiskey barrel, can hardly tell what is in
it, while the latter will detect a man if he has been indulging in half a
thimbleful of beverage, at a distance of something less than a hundred
yards."

It is a little surprising that the writer, evidently Dr. Mitchell,
should call our vulture a buzzard. A buzzard is a species of hawk.
Turkey-buzzard is the correct name, according to Webster, Audubon, and
others.

It is also surprising to see our learned Doctor using the following
language: "There is some room for the suspicion both in his (Waterton's)
case, and that of Audubon, that they

have studied the
art of writing a book of travels in the school of Gulliver, the Baron
Munchausen, Mandeville, and the renowned worthies of that class." Knowing
Audubon as we do, we can hardly realize that a well-read and accomplished
scholar should suggest the possibility of his veracious description being
munchausenism.

It appears that there was an article on Sound, but it is not
preserved. There is one on the economic uses of the long-leaved pine. Its
products were much sought after in those days when steam was not used or used
but little. The products are enumerated as lumber of various kinds, turpentine,
spirits of turpentine, rosin, tar, and pitch.

A paper by J. Hamilton Couper on Rotation of Crops as adapted to the
Southern States, published in the Southern Agriculturist, is highly praised.
Much emphasis is laid on the statement that, "it is now ascertained that
a living vegetable does not merely leave in the earth a quantity of nutritious
matter that is not adapted to its own subsistence and support, but deposits
under the form of an exudation from its roots a quantity of vegetable
substance, upon which neither itself, nor any other plant of the same species,
can feed, but which is well fitted to become the sustenance of another of a
different kind." This fact is now made available especially by our more
advanced farmers in the use of nitrogenized bacteria.

The writer mentions that Dr. Sondley of Newburg District had
discovered that a "new and valuable indigenous grass," (Leersia
Orizoides), is a good food for cattle, that it is found in the neighborhood of
Chapel Hill and recommends that it be tried on damp and cold lands.

There is also an appeal for improved roads so intelligent that it
would delight the heart of Professor Holmes and the other advocates of similar
beneficent agencies in our day. The MacAdam process was preferred.

It must not be supposed that the columns of the Harbinger contained only scientific discussions.
"N" prints a love-poem, a valentine, a particular favorite of his
in "his days of fancy, youth and frenzy," some stanzas of which he
still regarded as

very beautiful poetry. The authoress
was Miss Ella Trefusis. I give two verses out of eight as specimens:

O man! how little dost thou know
The sources whence our pleasures flow;
O man! how little canst thou share,
The soft refinements of the fair!
Those heavenly nothings which we prize,
Your grosser appetites despise;
Never in your hacknied bosom live
Those loyal sentiments which give
A sacred character to love,
And prove its mission from above.
Alas! my every wish was thine;
But the world shared my Valentine.

The following is possibly a good description of an engaged
couple--

Think, Mellidor, on former days,
Think on the thousand winning ways,
By which my heart thou did'st obtain!
The fond, fond look, the melting strain,
The frequent letter, praises bland,
This tenderly imprisoned hand;
Full many an eve together past,
Each eve more valued than the last;
When by the sun's declining rays
I dared the transitory gaze,
Read in those eyes that flame divine,
Now--felt but by thy Valentine!

The last of the original articles which I notice are on the history of
the State. Searches, it was urged, should be made for documents. The
biographies of officers and soldiers should be written. The conduct of
Cornwallis' army during the invasion of 1780 and 1781 should be investigated.
Stedman, an Englishman and a Tory, says, that "at Halifax some enormities
were committed by the British, which were a disgrace to the name of a
man." What were these enormities? What influence upon the American cause
by the fighting Quakers, the Highlanders, and the Regulators, should be looked
into, as well as that of the Tories of Rutherford and west Lincoln.

their date of erection and the origin of their names.
The statements are as a rule accurate, but as Williamson and Martin were
followed there are a few errors. For example, Northampton County was not called
after a county of the same name in England, but in honor of the Earl of
Northampton, father of Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, Prime Minister.
Surry County was named after Lord Surrey, who opposed the American war, in
office under Rockingham. Surrey was afterwards Duke of Norfolk.

These historical articles are over the pen name of "N,"
undoubtedly from internal evidence, Dr. Mitchell, as has been said.

Besides the well-written and instructive editorials, there was the
usual supply of clippings, including useful facts and humorous anecdotes. Among
the facts is a statement that Harvard College in 1830, excluding buildings,
library, apparatus and grounds, had property amounting only to $460,624.
Of this amount only $149,171 was applicable to the universal use of the
college, the balance belonging to the theological and law departments, and
including the funds pledged to salaries and professorships, etc. The annual
expenditure for 1832 was $41,054; income, $40,962. In about
seventy years Harvard University has increased to near 6,000 students, over 500
teachers, over $15,000,000 of property, and an annual income of more
than a million dollars.

The Harbinger soon came to an end, doubtless
from want of pecuniary support, as has been the fate of all journals in North
Carolina, which appealed to love of knowledge and literature.

Of a similar nature to the Harbinger, the
Columbian Repository, printed at Chapel Hill, was
projected in 1836 by Hugh McQueen. No specimen of it is known to exist.
Probably it expired with the first number. The unfortunate habits of the
otherwise gifted editor and the limited number of those likely to be interested
in his journal necessarily brought it to an untimely end.

SALE OF TENNESSEE LAND WARRANTS.

While President Caldwell was languishing on his couch of pain, the
bodily agony equalled by his grief for the distressed condition of the
institution he loved more than life, plans were maturing on the wise initiative
of Duncan Cameron, President of the Bank of the State, one of the shrewdest
financiers of his time, which ultimately gave the University an endowment and
filled her halls with students. This beneficent result came from the sale of
her land warrants and other assets in the State of Tennessee. The trials and
difficulties encountered in pushing these claims deserve a detailed
narrative.

The grant of Carolina to the Lords Proprietors in 1663 and 1665
extended nominally to the Pacific Ocean, called the "South Sea" in
the charter, but of course as Great Britain became the owner only to the
Mississippi River, this river was the real western limit. By the acts of 1782,
1783, and 1784 of the General Assembly of North Carolina, the warrants for
lands granted to its officers and soldiers of the Continental Line were to be
located in a region in the western part of the territory, now the State of
Tennessee, called the Military Reservation, with the proviso that if sufficient
tillable land could not there be found, other unappropriated land could be
substituted. A land office was opened, afterwards known as John Armstrong's
office, for the entries under said acts, and also under the Act of 1783 for the
redemption of specie certificates, issued for the expenses of the war.

In December, 1789, North Carolina passed the Act of Cession of the
territory of Tennessee to the United States, which was approved by Congress
April 2nd, 1790. The rights of the officers and soldiers were not forgotten.
The Governor of North Carolina was to have power to perfect their titles by
grants; rights of occupancy and pre-emption theretofore granted were preserved,
and all entries already made, which interfered with prior entries, might be
located elsewhere in the ceded territory. With these exceptions, the
sovereignty over this territory passed to the United States.

the unappropriated lands were not ceded to the new
State. Tennessee, however, claimed that North Carolina's rights expired in
1792, for the reason that the time for procuring grants was by the act of the
North Carolina Assembly limited to that date, that there was no reservation of
the power to extend the time, and that all extensions of the time for soldiers
to claim their bounties made after 1792 were null and void.

In disregard of this claim the General Assembly of North Carolina
granted extensions from time to time until 1801, when this body barred all
claims not presented by 1st of June, 1803. By an act of 1807 that of 1801 was
repealed and applications were directed to be made to the Legislature, and
warrants to issue only on its resolution. In 1819 the Governor, Treasurer and
Comptroller were made a board, vested with the authority reserved to the
Legislature in 1807.

Before this Board of 1819 the University presented its claims for very
many warrants. A large number was allowed, laid before an adjudicating board
appointed by the State of Tennessee, allowed by them, patents issued, placed in
the hands of locators, and subsequently grants issued.

Although the State had published the names of the Continental officers
and soldiers and notified them of the warrants awaiting their application, a
large number never came forward. Presuming that these delinquents had died
without heirs, the General Assembly, by resolution, in 1821 directed that a
number of undelivered and unclaimed warrants in the names of those entitled
should be delivered to the University. And in 1824, in order to stop the clamor
of the people of Tennessee that the flow of warrants was inexhaustible, the
Secretary of State was ordered to close the muster roll and make out warrants
in the name of the University for all the remaining non-claimants.

Let us now see something of the course of legislation in Tennessee and
in Congress. In 1799 Tennessee asserted her right as a State, sovereign except
as to the powers vested in the United States, to all ungranted lands within her
limits, even those claimed by the United States. She asserted that the national
title was abandoned when she was admitted into

the Union
without expressly reserving that title, but as the claim was not allowed, she
refrained from opening a land office. In 1801 she confirmed all prior entries,
warrants, and grants already made and directed that Tennessee grants be issued
on such warrants. At the same time she prohibited by heavy penalties any
further action by North Carolina surveyors and entry takers. In 1803 Tennessee
appointed Judge John Overton as agent to make a "friendly explanation and
adjustment" of these differences with North Carolina. This resulted in
the Act of the General Assembly of this State of December 2nd, 1803, passed
subject to ratification by Tennessee, which was given, and of Congress, which
was not given. This Act gave Tennessee the function of perfecting title to
claims of lands reserved to North Carolina in the Act of Cession, subject to
certain restrictions, that which concerned the University being the exclusive
right retained by North Carolina to issue military warrants.

In 1806 Congress, in a spirit of liberality and compromise, ceded to
Tennessee, subject to North Carolina's reservation in the Act of Cession, and
also to certain Indian titles, the rights of the United States to about
one-third of the State, approximately from sixteen to seventeen million of
acres, of which after satisfying all North Carolina claims to this section
there remained in 1838 about eight million acres. The United States retained
title to about one-third of the State. The boundary between the two
sovereignties was called "the Congressional reservation line." It
began where the main branch of the Elk River crosses the southern boundary of
the State, thence due north to Duck River, thence northwesterly down Duck
River, nearly to Centerville, thence due west to Tennessee River, thence down
the Tennessee to the northern boundary of the State. In official reports the
area west and north of this line was estimated as 6,840,000 acres, of which
942,375 acres were granted by North Carolina previous to the Act of
Cession.

As soon as the Act of Congress of 1806 was accepted by the Tennessee
Legislature, that State opened her land offices for satisfying the reserved
claims of North Carolina. The lands south of the French Broad and Holston
Rivers were excepted.

In 1811 North Carolina claimed the right to perfect titles to lands
west and south of the Military Reservation line, and sent a surveyor, Col.
Thomas Love, for the purpose. After he had surveyed about 50,000 acres, the
Tennessee Legislature, as heretofore mentioned, passed a prohibitory act with
heavy penalties on the surveyor and register, and disbarring and fining any
lawyer who should bring suit on such claim.

North Carolina thereupon, in 1815, memorialized Congress, claiming the
right, and complaining of so much of the Act of 1806 as gave Tennessee 200,000
acres for colleges and academies. Of course Tennessee presented a counter
memorial. In this it was stated that the lands east and north of the
Reservation line had been exhausted without satisfying North Carolina's claims,
and Congress was requested to authorize these claims to be located in the
Military Reservation. Congress complied with this request and, by Act approved
April 4th, 1818, authorized Tennessee to perfect titles by grants to all
locations prior to the Act of Cession, and "also to issue grants within
said territory on all valid warrants of survey, interfering entries,
certificates, grants and locations, that had not been actually located or
granted east and north of the reservation line, and that were removable under
the North Carolina Cession Act." In pursuance of this authority,
Tennessee in 1819 opened a land office, and the time for satisfaction of such
claims was from time to time extended until 1839. It was calculated that
3,567,801 acres were adjudicated after the Act of 1818 to meet these claims,
leaving to the United States between 2,300,000 and 3,300,000 acres, which were
ultimately, in 1846, donated to Tennessee.

Another element of trouble was the claim of the Chickasaw Indians to
lands stretching from the Ohio River south into the State of Mississippi,
including the western part of Tennessee, which was recognized by the United
States by the Piomingo Treaty of 1786. By treaties in 1805, 1816 and 1818, the
Chickasaws ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi River. For the
territory north of the Tennessee River, the price paid in 1816 was
$12,000 a year for twelve years, of which $4,500 was

paid in sixty days. For that west of that river,
Governor Isaac Shelby being the commissioner of the United States, there was
agreed to be paid $300,000 in fifteen annual instalments of
$20,000 each, besides presents, $7,000 or $8,000 worth, to
the chiefs. It is stated that three thousand Indians were present when the
treaty was negotiated. The Indian title being thus extinguished, there was no
further obstacle to the location and sale of soldiers' warrants within these
limits. Now, for the first time since Governor Smith's donation of 20,000 acres
in 1792, his beneficence became available.

Still another complication arose from the frauds by the Secretary of
the State of North Carolina, James Glasgow, and the Registrars of the Land
Office in Tennessee, John and Martin Armstrong. The latter converted to his own
use large sums belonging to the State, for which an uncollectible judgment was
obtained and given to the University by the State. And moreover these frauds
created suspicions of false entries and such confusion of claims as materially
increased the hostility of Tennessee towards the just demands of the
institution.

The Trustees of our University lost no time after 1819 in obtaining
their grants from the State of Tennessee. An opposition grew up, on account of
the magnitude of the University's demands, so fierce as to threaten the
adjudication of all remaining warrants. Judge Archibald D. Murphey and Hon.
Joseph H. Bryan, the latter an ex-Member of the United States House of
Representatives, were appointed to secure the interests of the institution.
Judge Murphey journeyed to Nashville, ascertained by private conferences with
the members and his attorneys the best possible terms, and asked for and
obtained permission to address the General Assembly. He spoke during the
working hours of two days. When he concluded, Felix Grundy proposed that
Jenkins Whitesides and James Trimble, who had in full the public confidence,
should be appointed commissioners to investigate and adjust the claim of the
University, with power to compromise disputes and to grant exemption from
taxation as asked for. The leader of the opposition accepted the proposition,
and it passed the Assembly.

On August 26th, 1822, these commissioners came to an agreement with
Attorney Joseph H. Bryan, by which grants should issue upon the warrants owned
or acquired by the University, and that they should be exempt from taxation
until January 1, 1850. The University on its part agreed to transfer to East
Tennessee College, now University of Tennessee, twenty thousand acres, and to
Cumberland College, now University of Nashville, forty thousand acres, the
assignments being subject to contracts previously made for procuring and
locating the same. The University further agreed to warrant the title to 45,000
acres at $1.50 per acre, with interest, liability to end unless adverse
claims should be made by January 1st, 1831. This was duly ratified by the
Trustees of the University and the General Assembly of Tennessee.

After giving to the Colleges of East Tennessee and Cumberland their
shares of the warrants then in hand, there remained to the University of the
1,823 warrants only 4,476 acres. The application to the General Assembly for
their location was refused, but Judge Stewart of the Circuit Court, on a suit
for mandamus, founded on the statutes in existence, instituted by James Trimble
for the University, ordered the Secretary of State to adjudicate them. It was
hoped that the Secretary would likewise under this decision adjudicate the
warrants of 1824 and subsequently, but he declined to do so until the question
should be passed on by the Supreme Court. Before that body the University was
represented by James Trimble, Felix Grundy and Alfred Balch, who argued in
vain. The application was rejected. Soon after this argument, ex-Judge
Trimble's valuable services were lost by his death, and ex-Judge Wm. S. Brown
was employed in his place.

A special session of the Legislature being called, Judge Murphey
addressed a strong memorial to that body, which was supported by Mr. Brown,
whose speech was said by the Secretary of State to have been "the most
splendid effort of human intellect he had ever witnessed." Mr. Crabb, the
counsel for Cumberland College, he wrote, was "as usual very
respectable." Major Abram Maury (pronounced and often written Murray), a
representative, manifested his "usual zeal and

honest independence" for the bill, and was ably sustained by Mr. Grundy,
also a member. The opponents, however, prevailed by a vote of 20 to 18.

At a subsequent session, on application of the attorneys of the
University, a hard compromise was offered. In 1825, after much furious
opposition, an act was passed providing for a commissioner to adjudicate the
validity of all military warrants, presented to him by the University or the
East Tennessee or Cumberland College, not exceeding in all 105,000 acres, for
which certificates would be issued for land west and north of the Congressional
line, in 25-acre tracts, which should be sold, first to actual occupants at
fifty cents per acre, next to general purchasers at one dollar, and after a
limited period at fifty cents per acre, and lastly the residue at public
auction; one-third of the proceeds to be paid to the University, one-third to
the common schools of Tennessee, and the remaining one-third to the two
aforementioned colleges. Under this act the University received in cash
$15,002.68.

I now proceed to show what was done by the Trustees in working this
mine, so full of difficulties and disappointments.

The management of the Western lands was left to the Committee of
Appointments, Archibald D. Murphey and Thomas Ruffin being added, the other
members being John Haywood, Henry Potter and Wm. Polk, the Governor being
ex-officio Chairman, when present: Duncan Cameron was added in the following
year. In December, 1825, the Trustees denominated the committee, so increased,
as the Land Committee, and conferred on them full power "to adopt such
course in respect to the land claims as to them shall seem most beneficial to
the interests of the University." Besides those already named, from time
to time until the creation of the Executive Committee in 1835, George E.
Badger, Thomas P. Devereux, James F. Taylor, William Robards, Charles Manly,
Wm. S. Mhoon, James Iredell, and Romulus M. Saunders, besides Governors Burton,
Owen, Stokes and Swain, were members. Ichabod Wetmore, agent in Raleigh, of the
Bank of New Bern, was appointed Secretary at a salary of $250 per
annum.

As Col. Wm. Polk often visited Tennessee, having large interests
therein, he was vested by the committee with power to employ agents on such
terms as he thought best. On August 5th, 1821, he made a contract with Col.
Thomas Henderson, Jr., late editor of the Raleigh Star,
of whom Governor Swain said "No citizen succeeded in conciliating the
warm regards of a greater number of personal friends than he." He was to
procure evidence as to all persons who had served in the Continental line of
the State who had died without heirs capable of inheriting land. He was then to
lay the same before the Governor, Public Treasurer and Comptroller--the
Board of Adjudication appointed by the General Assembly of this State in 1819,
and if passed, then before the Board of Adjudication in Tennessee--the
Governor, Secretary of State, and Register of the Land Office. For compensation
he was to receive one-half of the warrants.

Col. Henderson proceeded to his duty with alacrity and success. He
appointed sub-agents, agreeing to assign them part of the warrants, what
proportion does not appear, and on October 3rd was ready for a division. This
was done, leaving to the University warrants calling for 147,853 acres. Other
warrants besides these were subsequently realized, as will be seen.

As an agent residing in Tennessee was necessary for locating and
selling the lands, Colonel Polk selected a man of ability and means, Samuel
Dickens of the county of Madison, post-office, Spring Creek, a recent settler,
who had been a member of the North Carolina Legislature from Person County and
a Representative in Congress in 1810-1817. To him in 1821 was given power
"to do all things to maintain, secure and preserve the rights and
interests of the University." The appointment was fortunate, as through a
long-continuing agency he proved himself to be vigilant and wise. He had charge
not only of the escheated warrants, but of those given to the University by
Governor Smith and Major Gerrard. His compensation for locating the lands was
that usually given, viz., 16 2-3 per cent of the value of the lands surveyed,
payable in land. For selling, collecting and paying over, his commission was

six per cent at first and afterwards ten per cent. In
locating, he had a partner, Dr. Thomas Hunt, a graduate of the University in
1800, the firm under the name of Hunt & Dickens, having a numerous staff of
young men "in the woods." In dividing in 1823 the lands given for
locating, the decision was "by lottery," or as we say, by lot. For
the purpose of securing an equitable division all the lands were grouped into
two divisions, northern and southern, and each division into two classes; first
class being tracts worth $4 per acre, and second worth less than
$4 per acre. On May 3rd, 1823, Dickens estimates the $4 lands of
the northern division at $37,589 and those under $4 at
$46,314.75. The aggregates of the southern division he estimates at
$57,153 and $56,007 for the corresponding classes. Deducting 16
2-3 per cent from these amounts, the University had the prospect of realizing
$164,220, less six per cent for selling and paying over. The net
receipts of warrants subsequently acquired were in addition to this. A
dangerous obstacle encountered was the hunting up by speculators of heirs, or
pretended heirs, of the soldiers whose warrants were transferred to the
University. Expensive litigation became necessary. So satisfied were the
Trustees that the bulk of these new-found claims were fraudulent, and that they
were owned by speculators who paid a trivial sum for them, and moreover that it
was impossible to distinguish the false from the true, that they adopted a
resolution to yield to no claim, no matter how plausible. They determined to
interpose every objection, technical or otherwise. To this the kindhearted
Treasurer Haywood entered his protest.

The instructions to the agent, January 21st, 1826, drawn by Judge
Murphey, show the precautionary measures adopted. The agent was ordered to
place a tenant on each tract, so as to make the statute of limitations begin to
run. If a squatter was already in possession he would be induced to leave, and
adverse claims should be bought in, the seller conceding the fact that they
were for the University. Suits should be compromised, if deemed advisable. But,
says the instruction, "let the suits remain on the dockets for several
years that speculators may be kept in the dark as to the true state of things.
Not

many suits will probably be brought if there be no
decisions. Speculators will anxiously wait and look out for the decision before
they adventure far." As the University guaranteed the title to the
warrants assigned to the Tennessee colleges against all claims made prior to
1831, suits should be avoided by all safe means until 1832. As it had been
settled by the Tennessee courts that claimants were barred by the statute of
limitations on the lapse of three years from the "appropriation,"
if not of the "emanation" of the warrants, the agent was instructed
to ascertain from the counsel of the University the meaning of these terms and
to complete whatever was needed to make the statute begin to run. It was hoped
that they meant the issuing by the Secretary of State of North Carolina. If so,
the University was already safe.

Three thousand dollars cash was sent Mr. Dickens to meet expenses of
various kinds, including counsel fees.

The counsel of the University in Tennessee at that time were ex-Judge
James Trimble and Felix Grundy, partners, of whom Mr. Dickens wrote that Grundy
was the greatest orator and Trimble, the soundest lawyer; at other times
ex-judges John Overton and Wm. L. Brown, Jenkins Whitesides, Alfred Balch,
Pleasant M. Miller, George S. Yerger. Besides these, there were local lawyers
to attend particularly to suits in their respective counties. Wm. Washington
was one of them. The principal lawyer for the University of North Carolina was
Archibald D. Murphey, general counsel in this State and special in the State of
Tennessee. The Land Committee likewise retained Wm. Gaston and George E.
Badger, as general counsel in all suits in which the University should be
interested. After Gaston became Supreme Court Judge, Thomas P. Devereux took
his place.

The lawyers concerned with the settlement of the land disputes were
men of the highest repute in the transmontane country. John Overton, born in
Virginia, younger brother of General Thomas Overton, Andrew Jackson's second in
his fatal duel with Dickinson, had been a judge of the Superior and Supreme
Courts of Tennessee, a man of soundest judgment, and noted as a real estate
lawyer. Jenkin Whitesides, a native of Pennsylvania, was a specialist in land
laws and had an immense

practice. James Trimble was born
in Virginia, lived for a time in Knoxville, and was a judge in the eastern
circuit. He moved to Nashville in 1813 and there practiced law until his death
in 1824. Trimble was the soundest lawyer. He taught law to some of the most
eminent men of the State, such as Samuel Houston, Wm. L. Brown and George S.
Yerger. Felix Grundy has a national reputation for oratory, second only to Clay
and Webster. Born in Kentucky, he distinguished himself in the legislature and
reached the dignity of a Judgeship of its Supreme Court. He settled in
Nashville in 1807 and at once attained a large practice. He was soon elected a
representative in Congress and was so ardent in support of the war of 1812,
that its opponents declared that it was brought on by "Madison, Grundy
and the Devil." In 1829 he was elected to the United States Senate. He
was Attorney-General of the United States under Van Buren and again a Senator
in 1834 and until his death in 1840. He was a wonderfully successful criminal
lawyer. It is stated on good authority that he defended 165 criminals charged
with capital crimes, only one of whom was convicted and executed. There is a
legend that he once caused to be printed a false almanac in order to deceive
the jury as to a date.

Pleasant M. Miller was also a native of Virginia. He settled in
Knoxville and was a Representative in Congress from that district. In 1824 he
removed to West Tennessee, and after twelve years of full practice was elected
Chancellor. His letters, notwithstanding that he wrote "I have went
there" and spelt cession with an initial S, show that he had a vigorous
and original mind.

George S. Yerger's father, of Dutch descent, settled in Lebanon,
Tennessee. The son was a bright lawyer. He was Reporter of the decisions of the
Supreme Court of his State and its first Attorney-General. He removed to
Mississippi and was eminent there.

Wm. L. Brown and Alfred Balch are not mentioned in Caldwell's History
of the Bench and Bar of Tennessee. Brown was afterwards a judge, and a very
able one.

At their meeting in 1823, the Board of Trustees ordered 25,000 acres
to be sold under direction of the Land Committee. The agent, Samuel Dickens,
executed the trust with faithfulness and sound judgment, except that, owing to
good offers made, he sold somewhat more than the number specified. His action
was approved. From time to time other sales were authorized. Previous to and
during 1824, 6,873 acres realized on credit $21,067. In 1825 were
bargained 7,560 acres for $22,802; in 1826, 11,180 acres for
$32,474; in 1827, 2,001 acres for $5,668; in 1828-'9, 4,273 acres
for $13,190; in 1830-'1, 6,260 acres for $18,383; and in 1831-'2,
6,103 acres for $17,831. A total of 44,207 acres for $131,415.10.
The price averaged a trifle less than $3 per acre. The land unsold in
December, 1832, was 112,602 acres.

The sales were generally made on credit of one, two and three years,
with interest from date. The agent at the above date (1832) had collected
$52,436.71, leaving a balance due on notes of purchasers
$78,978.39. Including interest, the balance was $94,587.31.

Of the cash there was paid to the University up to January 1, 1833,
$34,657.50, leaving $17,779.21 to be accounted for. This was
expended by the agent for the following items:

1st. Commissions for selling, collecting and transmitting.

2d. Compensation to agent for attention to suits.

3d. General superintendence, etc., etc.

4th. Locative interest in certain warrants not divided until sale and
payment.

5th. Attorney's fees.

6th. Taxes.

7th. Drafts paid on order of the Committee on account of buildings at
Chapel Hill, $1,114.24.

These drafts, $1,114.24, should have been added to the cash
paid the University. Doing so, we have receipts into the treasury of
$35,771.74, and the expenditures for realizing this amount
$16,664.97, i. e., about 32 per cent of the total.

In January, 1832, the agent reported that there belonged to the
University, excluding the Gerrard lands--

The "Resolution lands" were those ordered to be given the
University by resolutions of the General Assembly in 1821.

The report of 1834 shows that there had been sold by the agent in all
47,077 acres, for $125,150.05. There had been collected and accounted
for $56,814.17, being $4,377.46 in addition to what was reported
in 1832. There still remained due the University $68,335.88, principal,
and a large amount of interest.

Besides the receipts from the agent, there was had from the State of
Tennessee under the Act of 1825, as heretofore mentioned, $15,154.04
1-4, making a total in cash account of Tennessee lands $50,925.78
received into the treasury.

With regard to the title of the University to the aforesaid lands, the
agent hoped that by the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Dunlap vs.
McNairy, the statute of limitations placed them beyond controversy.

The Register of Tennessee became alarmed, on account of public clamor,
and stopped issuing grants on some of the "Resolution warrants." It
was hoped that he would resume without further trouble. None of the warrants
for which grants were actually issued were included, nor was a tract of 2,551
acres about which was a suit with John Terrell.

The tenants placed on the lands prior to 1826 for the purpose of
claiming actual possession by the Trustees, generally deserted in order to
settle their own lands. This caused the agent to make some sales to people of
no means, who would not otherwise have been accepted.

There was pending one suit against East Tennessee College for 2,500
acres and one against Cumberland College for 640 acres, both brought before the
expiration of t